Yes

by Cinda Smaagaard

Created on: August 15, 2009

One of the most distinctive characteristics of our modern age is that just about anything and anyone can be bought or bribed. Rationalization and justification for one's behavior have been elevated to an art form in this uncertain economy. Somewhere along the way children who were paid for cheating on grades went on to become employees who lie and "cook the books." Those who held the purse-strings like parents and bankers and lending agencies rewarded all this bad behavior too which has culminated in our modern culture which now makes immediate reward and remuneration more important than personal responsibility, standards and morality.

Can ethics overcome greed in the 21st century? Yes, but only if companies continue to promote people of moral character to supervise and hold their business and people to higher standards. This may not happen any time soon if bonuses and financial security are made more important than anything else in life. We are seeing just a taste of this in the socialized medicine town hall debates. It is easy to understand why it seems everyone can be bought or bribed. If they do not have any kind of personal investment in you and yours, why not take whatever handout the highest bidder is offering? Insurance companies, employers and even state officials with tight budgets have yet to weigh-in on the cost/ratio factors when it comes to expensive health care. Here are a few reasons why money should not always be the most important element to how we live our lives - how about integrity, character, responsibility, legality, fairness and conscience (if a person by the grace of God still has one)?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wishing to advance oneself financially, but trouble starts to brew when ideas or products or information are stolen or worse services become inferior - intentionally. Ecoli showing up in peanut butter is one thing, but when people knowingly and with malicious intent provide a product or service they know will harm others in advance, for example a dirty factory or false information, they have crossed the line into making a profit at any cost. They have sold their very soul to make a buck or maybe just to get revenge against a successful and honest competitor.

It is hard to understand why someone would purposely falsify information or withhold evidence or take away what little livelihood another has for one's own enrichment, especially when they know it is wrong. When trust breaks down most systems fail altogether. It is extremely tiring for honest folks to always be looking over a shoulder or double-checking every single document for authenticity and accuracy. Even when everything may appear to be in order, someone can simply pull the rug out from underneath you without remorse or regret because they felt like it - their ends justifies the means. We may have laws and codes to guide us, but that does little good when there are very few left who even care to follow them or want to enforce them. Especially if someone is waiving money or other incentives in front of their faces. Whatever happened to "do the right thing"? Whatever happened to standing up for oneself and saying "no" to the big bad guys?

Hopefully, even in this tight economy there will be those who cannot be bought at any price. People who consider the whole of society rather than one individual part and consider the long-term consequences of their actions on society in general. Since character and wisdom and honesty and experience are things which cannot be purchased, it does not surprise me that the majority of those who take bribes lack those very qualities. There is a way out of the paradox, however, and that is if enough people expose the con artists and scammers openly and immediately to the proper authorities. Hold them accountable under whatever legal means are available. Let them know directly that you will not be a victim or worse an accomplice to such deplorable behavior. Do not become part of the problem yourself by paying others to do bad things - things you know are wrong from the start, but do anyway because of intimidation and greed.

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