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Are business ethics or profits more important?

This Debate has 18 articles on the Ethics side and 7 articles on the Profits side. Click here to see all the articles rated and ranked by Helium members.

Ethics

Profits

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Ethics

The debate between profits and ethics has seemingly taken a polarized position lately. The only time that the two truly fall on opposite sides of the fence is when the business owner chooses to fall on the profit side fully, by fully I mean unethically, ruthless and uncaring for anything but the bottom line.
People want to dwell on business ethics toward the consumer, but in doing so they also miss a bigger picture. In the ever changing business environment you must adapt or fall by the wayside because global business in at our front door and we just aren't sure how to answer. The only true way to answer is just like with everything else. We must continue to be ourselves. We must continue to operate in the true nature of the American Way. We have always provided quality products and innovation to the market place at a reasonable price. This is our pride, but somehow we have lost the ethics that have always been a good placard for our economy.
If ethics were carried out in a better manner, American companies would not be in the decline that the are presently in. The job loss wouldn't be at such staggering numbers because our quality is better and our products are made by the workers on these shores. Ethical consumers would continue to buy American products because it keeps our people in work and our economy strong.
Profit minded people would suggest that there is more money to be made by shipping jobs to China or other countries that boast cheaper labor. Problem with this mind-set is that in doing so our companies are no different then the companies producing similar products in China, or Great Britain or any other country for that matter because chances are they are being made side by side and the only difference is what companies brand goes on the package.
If there were other differences in the products such as where they were made, I.e. MADE IN THE USA, then the price of the product if still reasonable will not matter and the company in question will still make money and doing so all within the means of ethical business practices, to both the consumer and their own family of workers. This is a venue of ethics that seemingly is to often over looked, because every dollar in an American workers pocket is a dollar in the American Economy which means another dollar in an American business' balance sheet. As an American business owner I would rather fail miserably then to succeed without ethics and that is the bottom line.