Wednesday Wonder
So I was passing through a coffee shop to pick up my morning cup and as I checked out I noticed one of their promo signs. It simply stated that they are about more than the product they sell. The sign stated that they would make commitments to us, their customers, to not exploit their 3rd world suppliers, be mindful of the impact of their industry on the environment and give back to the local community in which they find themselves.
After I recovered from my knee jerk suspicion about PR campaigns and how we are so often manipulated by them I said to myself … how refreshing. Here is a business that is making commitments to social ethics, realizing that their future is dependent on the well being of the society and world that is the source of their livelihood.
This is not the only business or corporation that gives back to the community in which it serves. But it is among a small minority whose mission statements include such commitments. It’s nice to see ethics move to the front of the line in corporate conversations.
I asked myself why I was so pleasantly surprised. Well, it’s a matter of contrast. In recent times we have all witnessed exceptionally high levels of economic greed, exploitation and corruption. i It’s sad that we are surprised by virtue when it is found among us. But we are.
Exceptions – like the recent response to Haiti - remind us of how the compassionate spirit abides. But the same day I had my stroll through the coffee shop I was also reading further about the aftermath of the bad dream of our recent financial crisis (Jim Wallis, Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street and Your Street – A Moral Compass for the New Economy). If anything would have tempered our greed and exploitation, you would think the recent meltdown would have. But it seems not. And I’m not talking about sainthood here. I am referring to the most basic kind of socially ethical behavior. Let me give an example.
In the aftermath of the financial collapse of Wall Street investment and commercial banks and the resulting federal bailout of the richest and most powerful entities in the country, you would expect some modest scaling back of greed. Not so. It’s not just that we spend billions of dollars to provide a safety net to the richest while not providing that to ordinary folks. The question is what happened next.
Here’s a fun one: Goldman Sachs borrowed $10 billion and then paid it back. After getting itself set back on course it created a bonus schedule for 2009 of 23 billion, twice what it paid out in 2008. But if that doesn’t make your eyes pop out, consider an example from the consumer banks, Bank of America and Citigroup which together received $90 billion in bailout money. They paid out over $8 billion in high level bonuses as the average teller received an annual salary of $22,000. Could anyone say this is morally defensible?
Look, people are in business to make money. But we’re also in the business of being together as a whole people. That’s why it is so utterly refreshing to hear someone in business talking about being socially responsible. There’s a social morality to the way we make our money and how we treat people up and down the line as we do. When greed is conspicuous, ethical people just stand out from the pack. We’re starting to notice them and redirect our business their way. In the end virtue will bring its own reward. And greed and exploitation will reap its own harvest.
In the meantime, I’ll take that with cream and a little sweetener.
