Should American business ethics change when dealing at the global level?

Yes

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by Soheil Rezaee

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Every American is familiar with the term "The Ugly American", originally the title of a 1958 political novel that was critical of American foreign policy in Southeast Asia during the Cold War. Now the phrase has been used overseas to describe American's who have some of the worst character traits. American business practices are no exception to this term.

When American business profiting from unethical practices, its harmful to our society. But when its overseas then the rules change and effects are deadly. Despite the misconception that American business create jobs overseas and help the local economy; its more about enriching the executives and the strongmen.

Its a fact that the term "business ethics" has become a joke today because many major industries have been making profits in unethical manners. But what is being done in America is nothing compared to the unethical ways that some major industries do business on the global market. The result is record profits for the CEO's, unemployment here in America, and what happens overseas can be described as a nightmare.

It has become too common for American Business to exploit the disadvantages of Third World countries for its own need. Because of economic hardship, corruptible government, different laws and a lack of enforcement has allowed some business to prosper in a region at the expense of the population.

Take KBR for example, which has been accused human trafficking by using bait and switch tactics in Iraq. The company was also charged by the Justice Department for bribing government officials in Nigeria in return for government contracts and for the company to pay less taxes.

Another notable example is ITT, who already has a history of unethical actions by having business relations with Nazi Germany and funding the 1973 Coup in Chile. But in 2007, ITT was charged for selling information to Communist China. These programmes were developed with cooperation of the American Government and were classified information.

However this not something new but a trend that has been happening for a long time. Going back to the days when United Fruit dominated Latin American politics. The secret to United Fruits success was its influence on regional governments by offering bribes for their cooperation. In return these governments offered support, cheap land, economic advantages, power, and if needed; the use of the National Army to put down strikes.

Then there was the profits made by contributing to the Holocust. Before and during World War II, several American companies had business dealings with Nazi Germany. Whats worse is that some companies were refusing to share secrets with the American government but also selling their secrets to Nazi Regime. Most notably was IBM, which provided the punch card machines that help the Gestapo locate Jews.

Moving on to the Cold War, several industries were responsible for supporting dictators and suppressing democracy in Latin America and Africa. In Latin America, some business followed United Fruits example and funded the suppression of democracy. In Africa, Mobil Oil was the biggest supporter of Ian Smith and the illegal White government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

This is why foreign investment in the Third World is often labeled as "The New Imperialism", this way of business is completely unacceptable and unethical. Rather then doing good for both the business and the region of operation, greedy CEO's have made millions at the expense of human life.

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