The problem is that without enforcement of laws against monopoly, oligopoly, and other forms of market domination, companies no longer need be accountable to their customers and workers (i.e. the people) and are instead only accountable to their shareholders - who by and large are the C-suite executives of other companies, and the "elected" officials - and since it has been ruled that money equals speech, the companies can pay to have people that they control elected to the government.
Is this a summary of the current U.S., or the decline and fall of the Roman Empire? Sometimes I forget what year it is.
"Point out that if your company were to make bribes or pay favors to foreign governments, you would face criminal liability under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ask them: do any of us think that’s wrong?"
The problem is that they all do, at least any that operate in countries without strong institutions and where personal whim is more important than whatever the law happens to say. You won't be able to do business at all in those places unless the wheels of bureaucracy are greased with a few bribes here and there. (Many of these places are functional monarchies so there is some amount of stability in the sense that the person at the top will be the same for quite some time.)
Even people like journalists and doctors know this; it's much easier to slip $20 to a border guard than it is to try to get your expensive stuff back after it was confiscated under whatever flimsy pretext.
Also, they might be looking at companies like Hugo Boss, Bayer (and other Farben companies), Adidas, and IBM and thinking that they just might be able to emerge less scathed than you are predicting.
I too was in the C suite of public company. You should check out my resume. I, for one, would never pay a fucking bribe to government. And if I was asked to by my board, I'd resign and go to the press. I have ethical standards that don't go away just because the government is committing crimes.
The problem is that without enforcement of laws against monopoly, oligopoly, and other forms of market domination, companies no longer need be accountable to their customers and workers (i.e. the people) and are instead only accountable to their shareholders - who by and large are the C-suite executives of other companies, and the "elected" officials - and since it has been ruled that money equals speech, the companies can pay to have people that they control elected to the government.
Is this a summary of the current U.S., or the decline and fall of the Roman Empire? Sometimes I forget what year it is.
Well argued. Hope you find a broad and elevated audience.
"Point out that if your company were to make bribes or pay favors to foreign governments, you would face criminal liability under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ask them: do any of us think that’s wrong?"
The problem is that they all do, at least any that operate in countries without strong institutions and where personal whim is more important than whatever the law happens to say. You won't be able to do business at all in those places unless the wheels of bureaucracy are greased with a few bribes here and there. (Many of these places are functional monarchies so there is some amount of stability in the sense that the person at the top will be the same for quite some time.)
Even people like journalists and doctors know this; it's much easier to slip $20 to a border guard than it is to try to get your expensive stuff back after it was confiscated under whatever flimsy pretext.
Also, they might be looking at companies like Hugo Boss, Bayer (and other Farben companies), Adidas, and IBM and thinking that they just might be able to emerge less scathed than you are predicting.
I too was in the C suite of public company. You should check out my resume. I, for one, would never pay a fucking bribe to government. And if I was asked to by my board, I'd resign and go to the press. I have ethical standards that don't go away just because the government is committing crimes.