Legality and Unethical actions

[Barrierstoentry]

I've new to posting here but have been a lurker for some time. A trend that i find disturbing throughout these forums is people looking lightly at illegal and unethical actions as just another course of business/entrepreneurship. Why is it that such a tolerant attitude exists? I get disgusted every time I see some new money making scheme come up willing to screw someone else just to give the person administering it a leg up. Do people not realize that there are consequences to every action taken?

I can understand drive and ambition to achieve a certain level of monetary wealth but do you really want it to come at someone else's expense? Is the money that important? Is trying to prove yourself to someone else by "making it" really that idyllic?


What your opinion on this subject?

(The use of "you" and "your" were used because i do not want to single any person out. I tried to generalize as much as possible so bear with me for the lack of concrete examples)

Best Regards

J

[chanson]

well i dunno about illegal stuff as anythign illegal is obviously not a good idea!

But as for stuff that could be considered unethical or immoral or whatever youw ant to call it, well its nature of the beast i suppose. I mad ea post on something similar last week. I compared it to selling drugs(im nto condoning selling drugs or say that its ok to sell drugs its just an analogy). If your a drug dealer is it your fault people are all messed up on drugs? I mean if you didnt sell them drugs they would go buy them somewhere else so really your just the one taking the money. now if your forcing them to do drugs or getting people hooked on drugs thats different. What im saying is if you dont do it someone else is going to anyway. So assuming its legal then really whats so wrong about it? i would say the person is smart for reckognizing an opportunity and taking advantage of it.\

And frankly this how most successful business' make their money. basically steal from the poor give to the rich!

thats my opinion

[akula]

the whole point of commerce is one conflicting objectives

buyers want things they need at highest quality and lowest price; sellers want things buyers don't need at lowest quality and highest price

now...you can debate the ramifications of this conflict all day long, but by the time you get hungry, you're gonna mentally shift moral culpability to someone else and find a way in your self to cheat the other guy

now, if you're an unskilled cheat, people are gonna feel cheated after you sell them and you're gonna go out of business

however, if you're a good cheat, your customers are gonna feel more empowered, healthier, sexier, knowledgeable etc..after you're through with them

e.g. how does a person feel after you've sold them on a loan so they can buy a car they can't afford from you (e.g. a BMW). does she really need that car? how could cheat you and make her feel that she does? typically, you will shift the blame to the customer for wanting the car in the first place.

when you're outside business you can debate the philosophy of cheating, but when you're inside business, the challenge is just to be a really good cheat

[harrymcwealth]

As long as your product doesn't kill anyone or cause them severe mental pain -- it are all good. All their base, I mean money, belong to us.

[AstarothSolutions]

Ethics is a very personal thing so it is not possible to say out right that something is morally correct or not (our views on morals have changed over the years, there are many things that were not only amoral but illegal that had previously been fairly common practice and since are socially acceptable again).

Is it moral that a sweet making company can make a lollypop or icecream for 3p but sells it for £1-£2?

Legality is another one which is frequently full of shades of grey rather than being black and white and again many would question if the law was actually correct or not anyway. Having had the joys of working in a multinational blue chip company everything had to go through solicitors and very little came back as "illegal" or "legal" but more a case of this is the risk, this is the chances of someone deciding it was wrong and these are the consequences.

Whilst I agree it cannot be used as a justification but when consumers are so price sensitive on 95% of products it is a hard decision to intentionally price yourself out of the market so your ethics are in tact esp when that can easily result in financial hardship for the people that have relied on you for their income (employees/ suppliers etc)