There's a Sucker Born Every Minute

The third in my series on the Seven Deadly Social Sins of Mahatma Gandhi is "Commerce Without Morality". It is alleged that the great showman, P.T. Barnum, uttered the words in this post - and given his history, it's quite possible. He was always trying to push the envelope and bring in more money. Treatment of the people and animals in his circus was secondary to their ability to fill the tent (so to speak). With all the recent goings on in the world of business and finance, one has to wonder if we've really learned anything at all from our past. Wendell Berry has a lot to say on the issue of the growth of enterprise and the loss of a moral compass. Whether in his books or poems, he skewers the large conglomerate that is the agricultural industry; the govenrmental subsidies that promote the improper growing of crops; and the effect on the global economy and on small farmers worldwide who can't compete with unfairly priced commodities. In fact, when crops became commodities and began to be future traded, we started on a long road to social injustice and immorality. Business without a sense of right vs. wrong will always lead to injustice. When a business becomes so large that it loses its place in the fabric of the locale in which it's located (and the concomitant accountability) then it becomes all about profit margin and share holder return-on-investment. One just needs to review the policies of many large employers nowadays that do not provide benefits (health, retirement) to part-time workers. The greater Memphis metropolitan area has 50,000 people who are working but do not have adequate (or any) health insurance due to this policy. Right or wrong - where's the moral compass? The lack of morality in our current world view has been written about a lot. A study of 18 to 23 year olds in the U.S. showed that most felt that anything was right as long as an individual thought it was right. Thus, individual views trump societal values and morals. The idolization of the self leads to the demonization of everything else. For when I take a good thing, like business, and make it the ultimate thing (make it an idol that I worship), then everything that does not help my idol become mroe powerful is demonic. This happens all the time in our world - just listen to the political rhetoric in this country right now. When we lost the absolute truth that all people are created in the image of a loving G-d, then the resulting world can be nothing but satanic. The views of right and wrong from a spiritual sense are absolute. In order to recover our sense of morality in business, we first have to recover it in every other part of our world. Businesses that operate without morals are not demonic as much as they are lost. It is our duty as shepherds to go and find these lost sheep and return them to the flock. This week, take a hard look at the places you do business and evaluate their moral compass. Engage with your own compass to make sure that it is functioning well, and then take action on what you find. Whether it's Quran, Torah, Bible or other sacred teaching, recommit to it today so that we can repair the damage to our world tomorrow. Peace for the journey, Dan