That assumption used to be true back then, but the definition is evolving and is no longer as true now
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And there is the core of the question. You could also restrict your neighbors access to lemons or water. You could poison his/her well, spread rumors of child molestation and pay the neighborhood hoodlums to trash his stand.
I think we would all be in agreement that these would be "evil" at least to some extent. The question then becomes is Walmart behaving fairly as a corporate entity? If it's simply buying better because of economies of scale and efficient distribution, then that's pretty benign. If it's to harm their competitors or bankrupt vendors who don't play ball, then it's another story.
Please use any facts to back up your opinions.
How is any of what you stated any different from any other for profit entity? The reason business exist is FOR profit. Management's only goal is to maximize shareholder wealth (Business 101).
And for the record, want to see greed? Oil, Oil, tech, tech, tech, investment, investment, investment, tech, Wal-Mart.
Rank Company 2012 Profit (millions)
1 Exxon Mobil 41,060.0
2 Chevron 26,895.0
3 Apple 25,922.0
4 Microsoft 23,150.0
5 Ford Motor 20,213.0
6 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. 18,976.0
7 American International Group 17,798.0
8 Wells Fargo 15,869.0
9 International Business Machines 15,855.0
10 Wal-Mart Stores 15,699.
There are far more "evil" entities out there.
Fortune 500 2012: Top Performers - Most Profitable Companies: Profits
Do motivations matter? What if I hear rumors about child molestation and spread them because I want to protect the neighborhood, not necessarily ruin the other guys business? If Wal-mart leverages it's size does it matter if they do it in order to bankrupt competitors or if they do it because it's the most efficient way to do business and competitors go bankrupt as a result?
It absolutely matters in cases of moral and ethical judgement. If you bump into me in a crowded subway and I drop my phone, it's an accident and not "evil". If you grab it from my hands and smash it to the ground, it's not the same thing, even though the results are identical.
Bottom line is they do not break the law. If you wish to have a successful business you are going to push someone off your way no matter what. It's just a simple principal of the capitalism and darwinism.
It absolutely matters in cases of moral and ethical judgement. If you bump into me in a crowded subway and I drop my phone, it's an accident and not "evil". If you grab it from my hands and smash it to the ground, it's not the same thing, even though the results are identical.
Except the question isn't whether they break the law, but if they are "evil". It is certainly possible to operate within the confines of the law and still have malevolent practices.
True, but I would argue that their practices aren't malevolent. I would further argue that corporations as a whole are amoral. They're just in it for the money. The law stands to check practices. In this case Wal-mart has done nothing illegal to this point. I'm not so sure you can raise a moral question about a corporation. They exist merely to profit their shareholders. You can question the legality of a corporations practices, but not so sure on morality.
Except the question isn't whether they break the law, but if they are "evil". It is certainly possible to operate within the confines of the law and still have malevolent practices.
I don't know about you, maybe you can't pass moral judgment on a business, but I certainly can.
There's nothing illegal about buying or selling shoes imported from overseas, made without benefit of labor laws, and made by small children under slave-like conditions.
Many people have no moral issues whatsoever with paying extra for those with a designer logo sewn on. Their morals begin and end at their wallets and what the law allows and to hell with everyone else, that's their problem for being born in a third world country. Of course, I often find that these dregs for humans are the first to scream about their God-given constitutional rights, but that's just me.
thats just the way life is, if you are born in USA you are very fortunate.
thats just the way life is, if you are born in USA you are very fortunate.
I was born in a developing country and seeing what is happening to the US now (no offense meant to those residing in the U.S.), I actually feel that I am very lucky that I wasn't born there. I feel lucky for being born in a country where we have strong family values and social support and where the people are happy despite being less than well off
We have some of those same values but the sense of family seems far higher in some Asian countries than ours, yours and Taiwan especially.
Could be an island thing, it's common also in Sicily, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Malaysian Borneo.
If this is in fact a universal fact, then I eagerly await the IRS data supporting the same.Every one I've seen that would traditionally be called a mom and pop (i.e. they've got at least a small store front somewhere) was an LLC, S Corp or some other sort of corporation.
Ah. I thought that the way life is in the USA is that you can work and try very hard not to support those products or the places selling them.
And who do you think lets businesses get away with evil? Whose job is it to stand up to them? Clearly you don't seem to think that it's yours.
I was born in a developing country and seeing what is happening to the US now (no offense meant to those residing in the U.S.), I actually feel that I am very lucky that I wasn't born there. I feel lucky for being born in a country where we have strong family values and social support and where the people are happy despite being less than well off. My only dissatisfaction is that because many countries look up to the US, they aspire to emulate them without thinking if it fits the society
In theory pigs can fly. Certainly enough people have talked about it over the years. And if we were to justify the notion completely on the number of words spoken on the subject, then we might be inclined to accept as a fact that pigs can fly.Well, in theory it is.
If this is in fact a universal fact, then I eagerly await the IRS data supporting the same.
Until (and unless) that happens, I can't accept magical thinking in the place of actual data.
Don't get me wrong, small businesses are the backbone of the country, but it's hypocrisy to pretend that everything some small business does is great just because they're small and everything some large corporation does is bad because they're big. It's ridiculous and just not factually based.
Fabulous.
Find one statement here where I ever suggested the ridiculous straw man that you just knocked down.
Hint: I never said anything of the sort.
I deal with senior management of multinational corporations for a living.
I get the whole bit about the point of corporations, and pardon me for saying it, probably far better than you may.
Better firms have strict ethics policies and regular, intensive ethics training.
When you operate to high ethical standards, staying legal is easy.
Other firms only care about the letter of law, and loopholes are fair game.
You can repeat again that corporations are amoral.
Sorry, that's a theory about how it should be. In practice, your idea is not the way the business world really works.
Some business are evil. They're run by evil people with evil thinking that they put into evil practices. Some aren't that way at all.
You won't see that because I say so. You may never see it.
But it is a very real fact.
People are evil, but businesses are no more evil than guns kill people. It's people at the end of the day, not the business.
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