Sadly, Business Ethics Are Worse Than Ever

People who own businesses or are in business know that ethics are always a sensitive topic. There are standards of business conduct which should be taken by anyone in a position of authority. That standard is taken from The Business Ethics Forum, a meeting of businessmen and professors held on September 12, 2006, who agreed on basic principles that any corporation should consider a measure of good ethics. Their "Global Business Standards Codex" (GBS Codex) suggests the principles such as protection from theft, being truthful in disclosures, being respectful of people in regards to their health as well as their confidentiality, and treating people fairly as defined by following laws and regulations.

Despite the aforementioned, there is an increasing amount of costly white-collar crime. The National White Collar Crime Organization 2002 report stated that in 1997 the total number of victims was roughly 11,700,000, a figure which, in 2001, rose to above 15 million. There was a report in 2002 from the National Report to the Nation which informed private citizens that cases of fraud by themselves had ended up costing over $600 billion. Increasingly unnerving is the Internet Crime Report. This report provided evidence that there was a sixty-six percent increase in complaints about ethics violations between 2004 and 2005. Another point of concern is that the FBI Uniform Crime Report from the year 2005 displayed national statistics which clearly demonstrated that fraud and embezzlement crimes rose drastically, far surpasses the growth of mere violence and property crimes. The report says embezzlement alone cost the nation over $27 billion dollars. That was in fact a 12% increase from the previous year. Fraud and securities violations alone cost over 300 billion in 2005, while bank robberies cost a little over a mere 87 million.

According to the National Fraud Center statistics, in 1970 economic crime cost the nation $5 billion, not but a decade later cost $20 billion, and $100 billion in 1990. It was estimated that in 2006 the calculated cost was up to 1.3 trillion. According to the FBI, senior citizens are targeted at a rate of 34% of U.S. residents in fraud schemes so that those who most need to be protected by good business ethics are disproportionately deprived of it. It's self-evident from this data that there is statistical trend for worse business ethics. As you think about this data, though, let's apply the GBS Codex standards. Clearly, at a minimum, they fail to meet most of these standards. Neither the property principle nor the fairness principle can be met by the theft of billions, even an all-encompassing figure of trillions of dollars. Not only are the standards of protection and fairness, but dignity is clearly damaged, especially when this type of ethics fraud typically focuses on the basic well being of older citizens.

It can only bring a sense of deep concern for the state of our business nation with information like this at hand. Clearly, white collar crime has been the downfall of our economy, as demonstrated by the past few years' worth of economic downturn. The question now lies, how are we to fix this mess and take preventative measures?

Herb likes to stay up to date on business ethics issues. Please check out his website with information on pendant lighting fixtures and details on contemporary light fixtures.