Business Ethics

“Error is easy and correctness hard; since it is easy to miss the
target and hard to hit it… we are noble in only one way, but bad in all sorts of ways.”

"... in the case of what is to be morally good, that it conforms to the moral law is not enough; it must also be done for the sake of the moral law. otherwise that conformity is only very contingent and uncertain."

" love as an inclination cannot be commanded; but beneficence, is practical, and not pathological love. Such love resides in the will"

"If we weighed up everything from one and the same standpoint, namely, that of reason we would find a contradiction i our own will, viz., that a certain principle by objectively necessary as a universal law and yet subjectively not hold universally."

"act only according to the maxim whereby you can at the same time ill that it should be a universal law"

"act in such way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means."

" i should never act except in such a way that i can also will that my maxim should become a universal law"

" a rational being must always regard himself as legislator in a kingdom of ends rendered possible by freedom of the will whether as member of sovereign."

" the creed which accepts as the foundation of moral, Utility, or the Greatest happiness principle (happiness for the greatest number), holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure."

"Pushpin is as good as poety"

" there is known Epicurean theory of life which does not assign to the pleasure of intellect of the feeling and imagination and the moral sentiments, a much higher value as pleasure than those of mere sensation."

Prevent unhappiness by ridding self of desires (avoid pain)

"Money is the universal, self-constituted value of all things. Money is alienated essence of mans Labour and life, and this alien essence dominates him as he worships it"

when it (free market) describes the relationship between wage-labor and the profit of capital, its fundamental point of departure is the interest of the capitalist, that is, it accepts as given what it should be explaining. In the same way competition is used to explain everything. The only wheel which political economy sets in motion and greed and the war between greedy: compitition

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages."

"By directing industry in such a manner as it produce may be the greatest value he intends only his own gain, and he is in this as in many other case, led by an invisible hand to promote an end that was not part of his intention"

" The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manor they ought to employ their capital s would not only load himself with the most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, no only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as i the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enoug to fancy himself fit to exercise it."

There is common property God gave all and that property becomes ours when we consume it or mix our labor with it.

"In former days there was little difference between the dwelling, dress, food and
environment of the chief and those of his retainer"

"much better this is great irregularity than universal squalor"

"In bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves; to provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so: to give those who desire to rise the aids by which they may rise"

" thus is the problem of Rich and Poor to be Solved. the laws of accumulation will be left free; the laws of distribution free. individualism will continue, but the millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor entrusted for a season with a great part of the increased wealth of the community, but administrating it for the community far better than it could have done for itself.

"fundamental shifts i technology and in the economic landscape are rapidly making current system of intellectual property rights unworkable and ineffective."

"Tweaking they system won't do it. Some new ways of thinking about intellectual property rights will be necessary."

"what different countries need, want, and should have in a system of intellectual property rights is very different, depending on their level of economic development."

"The purpose of business is to make more money, and increase stockholder value"

"Business should make money, but it has many stakeholders--groups/individuals who have a stake in what the business does. Owners are not the only one's with stake."