Mercantalism is a root of all evil

[SEAN!]

Originally posted by hardstylin
heres my thoughts Mercantalism is NOT the root of all evil mans GREED is, in the end it doesnt matter what system of economics u follow man will find away to exploit because of GREED.

id have to agree with you completely..even in communists states their is a great deal of corruption(even moreso then in most democratic capitalist countries) and unequal accumlation of wealth.

[Leviathan]

^I would argue that this is more prevalent in the free market. I think the problem is that even the communist countries tend to operate on a bit of a mixed market system eventhough it goes against their ideology. I guess it could be argued that this happens because of greed though :)

[Leviathan]

I totally agree with you, I think consumers are definately starting to pay closer attention to companies they buy from these days. I think alot of the problem that makes unethical buisness practices seem like the norm is due to the press. Very rarely do you hear about the ethical companies or the companies that go out beyond the call of duty. I think it can be totally argued that over a period of time an ethical buisness can be way more productive than an unethical one despite some of the added costs. I could be just talking shit though too. My knowledge of buisness ethics and systems is pretty limited.

Originally posted by Senior


There's actually a lot of ethical business' and a growing movement of consumers that are making their decisions to purchase goods based on this. Fair trade companies are an example of this.

[Moon]

Originally posted by Leviathan
I totally agree with you, I think consumers are definately starting to pay closer attention to companies they buy from these days. I think alot of the problem that makes unethical buisness practices seem like the norm is due to the press. Very rarely do you hear about the ethical companies or the companies that go out beyond the call of duty. I think it can be totally argued that over a period of time an ethical buisness can be way more productive than an unethical one despite some of the added costs. I could be just talking shit though too. My knowledge of buisness ethics and systems is pretty limited.

i don't think you're talkin shit at all. Its true that you don't really hear about the ethical companies, because they don't get mixed in the controversy.

ever heard the saying "bad publicity is good publicity" ?

hahaha in my opinion, that comes from stupid fuckin idiots. i bet that was Britney Spears' whole business plan... tell em all i'm a virgin for a while while i pull off being the biggest slut... and play around with my titties just so i can stir up more shit. same with j Lo, hahahaha i wonder if this bad publicity has done her career more good than harm. stupid sluts.

ethical business will cost more to stay legit, but its like trying to pull off being the best basketball player. You can either play around with the politics of the game and get picked on the team with good playing time from being a smartass talker, or you can work hard from scratch, practicing to the point you're up to your own expectations. I'm sure we can all relate these simple scenarios, and make parrallel comparisons to MANY other real life situations (ie ahem DJ's... haha figure that one out)

[Senior]

What about reality TV?!! Come on people we are going to have to deal with a whole generation of people in the near future that will think democracy means voting on who gets kicked off the show.

[SEAN!]

bad publicity isnt good for companies..they arent like movie stars or dj's...if something comes to light or someone one fucks up and it becomes know companies get fucked. All publicly traded companies have share holders who are effected by the percieved value of the companies worth, and the legitiamacy of their operations. if it is revealed that a company is operating unethically this is seriously bad news for the comapny as they value of their company diminishes and they will likely have a more difficult time running their operations as well as securing capital for investment.

take a look at the two rcent scandals involving enron and parmalat, bad publicity alone has pretty much destroyedthe value of those two companies.

ethical buisness dosnt cost more, it saves more, if you run your buisness unethically your gonna have a hard time earning credibilty with suppliers, employees share holders and customers. it will fuck you over in the long run.