Virtue ethics can contribute importantly to a comprehensive theory of business and supply a context in which actions can be taken to attain the mission of a particular business. At the same time, the virtues can play a pivotal role in establishing a corporate culture (and related climate) that provide meaning and purpo... (Read more...)
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I have never managed to appreciate why these people keep assuming that the judgments and actions of government officials are superior to those of the citizenry throughout the world where these Keynesian proposals are being made and followed routinely. I keep asking, “Who are these people whom we can trust with such tasks as running a country’s economic affairs?” Somehow thousands of intellectuals who would never entrust government with tasks such as censoring literature and newspapers nevertheless have no compunction about entrusting them with the very delicate and idiosyncratic tasks of directing people’s economic affairs. (Read more...)
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The advent of railway and steamship transportation during the mid-19th century started a mass intercontinental and transcontinental migration unequaled before or since. Between 1860 and 1920, more than 45 million people left overpopulated Europe with over half of this number arriving in the United States. Many ... (Read more...)
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The liberal attitude about morality stems, in part, from widespread scientism, the view that science has invalidated morality, made it something bogus like astronomy has made astrology bogus. Extrapolating the empirical scientific method to everything else of interest to human beings achieves this distortion. (Read more...)
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Jerry Sterner’s 1989 play, Other People’s Money, plays to different groups of people as key players battle for the principles on both sides of a corporate takeover attempt. Both the play, and director Norman Jewison’s 1991 film based on the play, present, in dramatized form, both the arguments for and against corpo... (Read more...)
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On reasons 'Why Islamic countries stay at the bottom of the ladder of UNDP's Human Development Index. It’s appalling that with all of their oil wealth, two-thirds of the world’s poorest people live in Muslim countries? Why, in the last 20 years, have over million people died in conflicts involving intra Muslim wars?'
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Is it a good idea to explain 9/11and other terrorist attacks on Western and especially American populations by reference to the fact that the West has inserted itself into many regions of the Muslim world without much popular support from those who live there? The idea is that because governments such as that of the US have indeed done this, there can be no complaint when those who live there carry out attacks on Westerners including hundreds of innocent people who had nothing at all to do with the foreign policy that perpetrated the insertions. (Read more...)
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In this article, which I wrote some time ago but which I thought might be of interest to readers, I refute the claims of liberal economist Charles Prasch that the minimum wage law benefits our economy by increasing effective demand, promoting rapid technical change, and equalizing bargaining power in labor markets. As I explain in the article, these claims are entirely without merit, despite their appearance in a standard peer-reviewed economics journal. (Read more...)
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It is odd that at this time, when Washington is desperate for some genuine, bona fide economic stimulus, real funds that make it possible for citizens to go to market and generate commerce, including, of course, employment, that very same Washington is prohibiting the use of funds for just that purpose. (Read more...)
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Edward Bellamy’s popular novel, Looking Backward 2000-188, is frequently cited as one of the most influential books in America between the 1880s and the 1930s. This novel of social reform was published in 1888, a time when Americans were frightened by working class violence and disgusted by the conspicuous cons... (Read more...)
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Preface The central premise of my argument is that human beings are moral agents who ought to live to achieve happiness in their lives here on earth, with this happiness understood to involve their success as rational yet also unique natural beings. Each person has as his or her proper go... (Read more...)
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Though this is a topic that I have visited on several occasions, having recently become an avid fan of the Discovery Channel’s series on life in the deep oceans and other seas, I am motivated to observe just how absurd the notion of animal rights really is. (Read more...)
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Some self-described free-market economists of the Austrian school explicitly credit Karl Marx for the analytical framework they employ. A few years ago I attended a seminar put on by the Institute for Humane Studies in which an Austrian economist openly stated that his analytical method was Marxist in nature. He subs... (Read more...)
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Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri produced a sound bite following the recent passage in Congress of the compromise bill on the debt ceiling and spending cuts. Even as this bill didn’t by any means manage to demonstrate Congress’s serious understanding of economic reality, Cleaver said that the bill amounts to a devil’s sandwich, by which he meant that it amounts to the defiance of centuries of teachings of the world’s greatest religions about how one must look out for the poor and needy as one lives one’s life. (Read more...)
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While I see strong merits to an ultraminimal government idea, whereby the state has no other function than to protect the rights of the citizens from criminals and foreign aggressors, I do not share the view that politicians are necessarily corrupt. (Read more...)
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People can argue all day long about who is "right" or "wrong" as the broad spectrum of today's news commentators and politicians shows. So let those irrelevant others "feel" they are right using this technique. Meanwhile, pause to savor how you have learned to save your precious time and energy for what you enjoy most without ever actually sanctioning your enemies. (Read more...)
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I suppose when you have no arguments it is then tempting to impugn your adversary’s integrity. It’s a coward’s escape, I believe. (Read more...)
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Do voters actually believe it when candidates promise them health, happiness, vacations, clean air, and all those other goodies while also demanding that they stop being selfish, stop joining special interest groups and dedicate themselves only to the public good? I doubt it very much. This sort of pitch seems to me to put most reasonable voters on guard. (Read more...)
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Where the idea comes from is not really relevant--it could be neo-conservatism, imperialism, compassion, whatnot. But it is right that it should be debated, especially by Republicans who aren’t beholden to the legacy of Woodrow Wilson in matter of foreign relations. Republicans, especially those with conservative leanings who are committed to preserving America’s ideal of using force against other countries only when those countries embark upon an aggressive foreign policy toward American citizens or allies, need to take a renewed close look at their country’s basic principles, including those pertaining to dealing with foreigners. (Read more...)
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From very early on in the history of human thought it was accepted that logic is the first device to be used in aiming for understanding and in offering criticism—all of Plato’s Socratic dialogues adhere to this. Students at colleges and universities are constantly chided for being inconsistent. Everyone is, in fact. Except by serious pragmatists, at least the radical variety of them. And the reason isn’t very complicated to grasp. (Read more...)
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What is most puzzling about the scandal with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-New York) isn’t how stupid the man has been and apparently managed to be to the last moment before he came clean (enough). What is really puzzling is why in the face of repeated scandals and corruption across the world and this country, there are well educated folks who continue to be confident that if only one hands a problem over to politicians and their appointees, all will be fine. (Read more...)
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