View Full Version : How is that evil?
dIstOrtEd
02-01-2007, 03:59 AM
Hey bread winners,
I've got a question for all of you tonight. It seems that I find many people who have a problem with the fact that there are corporations, companies, and large businesses that make profits. Would anyone care to explain why making a profit is so evil? Well, maybe all of you can see the evil in it better than I can. It just seems normal to me to make profits.
There isn't a problem with profit. It's a problem whether the profit involved unfairly exploiting people to make that profit, creating a monopoly to make that profit or cheating to make the profit. Profit in and of itself is not where the problem lies.
piratemonkey
02-01-2007, 02:08 PM
Slave owners were just interested in profits...
If profit is our only value, exploitation of poor and uneducated people is sure to follow.
BoogyMan
02-01-2007, 11:08 PM
There is nothing wrong with profit that is legally made.
firefox
02-02-2007, 02:30 AM
Has to be moral too. There are many immoral laws, probably more immoral than moral if you think about it. Anyway, we must realize that corporations are imaginary legal entities created by governments for company protectionism.
Well, let's talk about evil, dIstOrtEd. Evil is making two years in a row the highest profit ever, while people paid the highest gas prices ever. Evil is an oil spill in Alaska that is still causing damage 18 years later and fighting the piddly amount of money they were told to pay out. Evil is dumping waste in Brookland's water and not thinking twice about it.
BoogyMan
02-02-2007, 02:49 AM
Lily, making the highest profit possible is what companies do, it isn't evil.
Elrathin
02-02-2007, 02:52 AM
Lily, making the highest profit possible is what companies do, it isn't evil.
At the expense of people and exploiting people, yes it is.
BoogyMan
02-02-2007, 02:57 AM
Elrathin, EVERY company making a profit on the sale of a good or product is doing so at the expense of the people.
Boogy......when you are making the largest profit two years in a row, of any company in history and you are destroying the livelihoodÂ*Â*of hundreds of thousands of people, polluting the land and making it unhabitable for years, then sorry, yes that is evil. I've always been taught when you make a mess you clean it up. What they did in Alaska and what they are doing in New York is not only sinful, but pure evil for profit. I wouldn't want to be them, when they met their maker. It's called a conscience.
It's called a conscience.
Ooops. That went over the line. Corporate profiteers have no conscience nor do they know what one is. It's like trying to tell a stranger about rock and roll.
Labrocca
02-02-2007, 06:28 AM
Profit is a byproduct of greed in most cases.Â*Â*Greed is...well let me quote wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greed
Greed is called a selfish desire to obtain money, wealth, food, material possessions or any other entity more than one legitimately needs.
...
Greed may entail acquiring material possessions at the expense of another person's welfare (for example, a father buying himself a new car rather than fix the roof of his family's home) or otherwise reflect flawed priorities.
Doesn't sound very nice does it?Â*Â*Many people described very prosperous and profitable companies as simply GREEDY! Exxon comes to my mind almost immediately.
I got nothing against making some profit on something as long you aren't ripping people off and you are not exploiting anyone (except yourself). Greed comes into play with excess profits.
BoogyMan
02-02-2007, 12:06 PM
Labrocca, you are painting with a huge brush there. Profit is why companies go into business. It is just that simple.
Elrathin
02-02-2007, 01:13 PM
Labrocca, you are painting with a huge brush there. Profit is why companies go into business. It is just that simple.
There is a difference between a company making an insane profit on something people need like gas and oil, medical supplies, and insurance compared to Blockbuster making a profit Boogy. That is what I was talking about earlier at the expense of the people.
People don't need to rent movies, however, medical supplies, insurance, gas and oil people generally need to survive and those companies are REAPING profits at the expense of the people that need them to live and earn a living.
piratemonkey
02-02-2007, 01:55 PM
There is nothing wrong with profit that is legally made.
So there was nothing wrong with what slave owners did?
BoogyMan
02-02-2007, 02:14 PM
Pirate, there are no slave owners in America today. That point is not relevant. I am dealing with the here and now, and in the here and now there are no slaves and slavery is not legal.
piratemonkey
02-02-2007, 04:34 PM
Pirate, there are no slave owners in America today.Â*Â*That point is not relevant.Â*Â*I am dealing with the here and now, and in the here and now there are no slaves and slavery is not legal.
All I'm trying to point out is that when the value "profit" is of greater importance than values like "freedom" or "human dignity," then nothing but bad things can come of it.
That applies today as much as it ever has.
You can't say that if someone is making a profit legally, then there's nothing ethically wrong with it.Â*Â*That assumes that our laws are perfectly ethical.Â*Â*I doubt you'd agree with that sentiment.
BoogyMan
02-02-2007, 05:44 PM
Pirate, there are no slave owners in America today. That point is not relevant. I am dealing with the here and now, and in the here and now there are no slaves and slavery is not legal.
All I'm trying to point out is that when the value "profit" is of greater importance than values like "freedom" or "human dignity," then nothing but bad things can come of it.
That applies today as much as it ever has.
You can't say that if someone is making a profit legally, then there's nothing ethically wrong with it. That assumes that our laws are perfectly ethical. I doubt you'd agree with that sentiment.
Pirate, I would have to agree with you on this point.
Concepts like "human dignity" are pretty subjective though. One worker might find cleaning the toilets to be beneath human dignity where another does not and if that is our standard you can obviously see the challenges it would generate. There are obvious bounds of human dignity that should not be crossed and I am not advocating otherwise, but there has to be common sense involved.
piratemonkey
02-02-2007, 06:14 PM
but there has to be common sense involved.
Very true.
And not common enough, unfortunately.
potter
02-04-2007, 07:59 PM
Boogy......when you are making the largest profit two years in a row, of any company in history and you are destroying the livelihoodÂ*Â*of hundreds of thousands of people, polluting the land and making it unhabitable for years, then sorry, yes that is evil. I've always been taught when you make a mess you clean it up. What they did in Alaska and what they are doing in New York is not only sinful, but pure evil for profit. I wouldn't want to be them, when they met their maker. It's called a conscience.
I'd like to add starting wars on false information and perpetuating new wars based on false information so the taxpayer end up picking up the tab for your buddies profits is also evil. (you know, all your buddies in the arms and oil industries)
Hiring lobbyists and strategicly placing minions in government who push through laws making use of your product manditory is evil.
Allowing illegal immigration to artificially keep the low wages low so you can make more profit is evil.
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