| POVERTY | |
| # of Persons Living in Poverty | 36,529,000 |
| Poverty Rate | 13.7% |
| % of Children Under 18 Living in Poverty | 20.5% |
| UNEMPLOYMENT | |
| # of Unemployed (Avg.) | 7,236,000 |
| Unemployment Rate | 5.4% |
by Rushworth M. Kidder
Last week two separate and very big news stories–about the America Online/Netscape merger and an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report–crossed my desk.
Actually, they didn’t, because I don’t have a desk just now. In redoing my study, though, I’ve noticed how desks have changed. I was about five when I saw my first roll-top pigeonhole desk at the local bank. It was a veritable oaken fortress. It hid its officer from the world, separating all his knowledge into discrete little slots.
Desks these days are different–massive flat-tops, more like aircraft carriers than redoubts. They offer no protection. Instead, they invite you to look far and wide, merge and mingle papers, and launch missives in every direction.
What they don’t invite is compartmentalization. Yet Americans are still terrific compartmentalizers. We’ve got more mental slots than that old roll-top, and we keep our bits of information in tidy isolation.
Which is why we may have missed the interplay of those two stories.
One, about the merger of America Online, Netscape, and Sun Microsystems, proves again that there’s a huge market for manipulating information electronically. These companies make nothing but connections between you and the things you want to know. And each was built by bright, creative, out-of-the-box thinking.
The second story is about a study of education in the 29 richest countries, produced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It shows that American high school graduation rates have fallen to next-to-last place, above only Mexico. Our adult literacy rates are among the poorest in the industrial world, while our university dropout rates are among the highest.
Put these together and the results are sobering. We’re spinning into the Information Age. Yet the people we’re training to manage that age are increasingly uninformed. If information is this important, and this is the way we’re teaching students to think about information…. You see the problem?
You can’t duck this one, either, with shopworn aphorisms about dropouts who become entrepreneurial geniuses. True, there are a few. But the companies they create are stocked with smart people trained to think carefully. The notion that we can muddle through the Information Age by turning out indifferent thinkers is simply foolish.
But there’s another argument, even more subtle. It claims that education today is foundering in mere intellectualism. We’re producing smart but amoral thinkers whose ethics can’t keep pace with their knowledge. Better, then, to refocus education wholly on character, even if intellect has to suffer. If that means a slide in the academic indicators, so be it. At least we’re virtuous.
That very argument is classic compartmentalization. It presumes that ethics and intellect are sealed off hermetically from each other. In fact, there’s a direct and constant interplay between the two. While it’s emphatically untrue that only educated people are moral, it’s certainly true that sharp reasoning can enhance ethical fitness.
Look what happens, for example, when reason doesn’t guide ethics–when we hold two conflicting moral propositions in thought without seeing the contradiction. This kind of moral incoherence has recently been richly displayed:
What’s going on here? Somehow, we’re not reasoning very clearly about the confusions embedded in these ethical responses.
When education works, it teaches people to think. That means recognizing logical contradictions. Education, done rightly, shatters the pigeonholing that leads to these contradictions. Result: we reason better with ourselves and with others. So we’re less apt to fall into the moral incoherence that leads us to act foolishly and inconsistently.
We’re moving into a period where ethical reasoning will be more important than ever–largely because, in the Information Age, the damage wrought by immoral intellect can be immense. Just as there’s a straight line from education to prosperity, so, too, there’s a straight line from clear reasoning to virtuous action. But we won’t see those lines if we compartmentalize. It’s time to get serious about intellectual and moral education, abandon pigeonholes for open-topped thought, and start seeing the rational and the ethical as one.
(c)1998 by Rushworth Kidder
Comments and questions? Email Rushworth Kidder: rkidder@globalethics.org.
We have traditionally held an ambivalent attitude toward the ratings-driven nature of television. While some view TV’s relentless quest for ratings as a natural and necessary method of adjusting the product to the audience, others contend that television’s bottom line is found at the bottom of the barrel.
Paddy Chayevsky called television "democracy at its ugliest."
As we report in this edition of Business Ethics Newsline, last week’s debate over the airing of an assisted suicide by CBS’s "60 Minutes" typified the debate–going beyond the confines of journalism ethics into a broader examination of the obligations of any profit-making entity.
Other questions of ethics and the pursuit of profits also are featured in this edition. We report on accusations leveled against Ford Motor Company, charging that the company’s leasing division hid lease fees in the fine print of contracts.
And on the subject of fine print, a health agency in Russia claims blurry letters and smeared ink are hazardous to your eyesight–and is imposing restrictions on ink, printing practices, and paper quality.
Publishers protest, asserting that the move is a crude attempt to impose censorship.
On a related note, we bring you a story from Havana on the removal from newsstands of certain U.S.-based magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, because authorities there say the publications are damaging to the Cuban cultural identity.
Two domestic stories this week deal with race and retailing. As we report, a black consumers’ organization called for a boycott of New York City stores in retaliation for what the group charges is suspicious and hostile treatment of black consumers. And the Eddie Bauer clothing chain last week settled with three black teenagers who sued after store security wrongly accused them of shoplifting.
From London comes a story dealing with the ethical implications of information-handling. A telephone company was criticized in the press for failing to maintain a database used by emergency service personnel to find addresses of callers who are unable to provide their location.
And from Turkey comes a report on an extradition dispute that is souring relations between Turkey and Italy.
Our Ethics in the News feature this week capsulizes and links you to a compelling piece in the Washington Post about the ethical obligations of consumers. Our Ethics in the Workplace feature points you to a Christian Science Monitor story about drug testing in the workplace.
–Carl Hausman
HAVANA
The Cuban government banned several foreign periodicals, including Cosmopolitan, from the nation’s newsstands, claiming the magazines are damaging to Cuba’s cultural identity and ideology.
BBC correspondents report that Cuban president Fidel Castro was upset by the "pornographic and sensationalist" content of the periodicals, which will still be available for purchase by foreigners at hotels and tourist sites.
DETROIT
The CBS television network’s decision last week to air videotaped footage of a lethal injection administered by Dr. Jack Kevorkian brought a barrage of criticism from observers who slammed the network’s "60 Minutes" segment as a ploy for ratings.
The episode, during which Kevorkian administers a lethal injection to a terminally ill 52-year-old man, brought "60 Minutes" its highest ratings for the season, and helped CBS win the pivotal November "sweeps" ratings period.
CBS News president Andrew Heyward defended the decision to air the Kevorkian tape, insisting that "one of the things journalism is supposed to do is provoke discussion and thinking about difficult issues," the Washington Post reported. CBS officials also denied that pursuit of ratings was behind the decision to air the program.
Some critics issued blistering denunciations of the episode. The editor of U.S. News and World Report called it a "snuff film," and The Boston Globe called the program "a disgrace" and "an act of barbarism."
The American Medical Association called Kevorkian’s action "an outrageous violation of medicine’s code of ethics."
Kevorkian, who has admitted assisting in the suicides of more than 130 people, was charged by Michigan prosecutors with first-degree murder after the incident aired. Preliminary hearings are scheduled for December 9.
DETROIT
Eighteen class-action lawsuits have been filed against Ford Motor Credit, a division of Ford Motor Co., charging the company with helping dealers to exploit hidden fees in lease arrangements, the Associated Press reported.
Mark D. Fischer, lead attorney for the class-action cases, announced the lawsuits last week, saying that Ford dealers have been bilking customers by hiding acquisition and administrative fees in lease prices, keeping customers uninformed and in the dark.
Della DiPietro, Ford Motor Credit public affairs manager, admitted to the AP that Ford bundles the fees into the lease prices, but insists that it does so to make the process "consumer friendly and approachable."
Twenty-two states are also investigating Ford’s credit division for allegedly overcharging customers who leased cars from Ford dealers. Florida’s attorney general last week claimed that some dealers capitalized on the confusion by pocketing overcharges in Ford’s leases, according to the Reuters news agency.
WASHINGTON
Clothing retailer Eddie Bauer last week dropped its appeal of a $1 million award to three black teenagers who had charged the company with defamation, racism, and false imprisonment after an Eddie Bauer security guard detained them for suspected shoplifting in October 1995.
The company settled with the youths for an undisclosed sum, according to the Reuters news agency.
The teens, one of whom was forced to remove an Eddie Bauer shirt he had purchased previously until he could return with a receipt, originally sued the company for $85 million, saying the incident was racially motivated.
A federal jury reduced the award to $1 million last fall, ruling that while Eddie Bauer had violated the rights of the three boys and insufficiently supervised its security guards, the company had not acted with racist intent.
Eddie Bauer’s CEO and president Rick Fersch gave no reason for abandoning his company’s appeal of that ruling, but said in a statement that Eddie Bauer strives to provide "quality service and respect for everyone," and that "our company does not discriminate."
LONDON
The U.K.’s Cable & Wireless phone company was criticized last week for failing to maintain its customer information database, which is used by emergency services to find the addresses of people in need of help who are unable to provide the operator with an address.
The criticism was leveled by "Which?" magazine, a publication of Britain’s Consumers’ Association. The magazine reported that more than 250 addresses were misidentified or missing from Cable & Wireless’s database over a three-week period this year, and in several cases emergency personnel were sent to incorrect locations.
"The company is putting people’s lives on the line because of its inability to keep its records correct," Which? Editor Helen Parker told the BBC.
Cable & Wireless said that it has restructured its database and fixed the problems.
NEW YORK
Thousands of black consumers were urged to boycott New York City stores last Friday, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year, to protest what they see as retailers’ racist suspicion and prejudice against black patrons.
"We are spending some $400 billion a year with people who seem to hold black consumers in contempt," said Bob Law, one of the boycott’s organizers and chairman of the Citywide Leadership Alliance, a local civil rights organization.
Economic boycotts by blacks are increasing in frequency and effectiveness, the Christian Science Monitor reported, spurred on by the greater purchasing power of the black middle class, which has risen from 10 to 50 percent of the African-American population since World War II began.
MOSCOW
Russian editors last week denounced new printing guidelines issued by Russia’s Health Ministry as ill conceived and unnecessary interference that may lead to more government corruption and censorship, the BBC reported.
The new guidelines, dictating type size, column width, ink type, and paper thickness, were drafted by scientists and doctors at the behest of the Health Ministry, which insists that cheap periodicals are straining readers’ eyesight with hard-to-read type and staining their hands with sub-standard ink.
But publishers say the new rules will amount to a crude form of censorship and may give government inspectors means with which to bribe or shut down Russian periodicals.
ANKARA, TURKEY
Italian businesses became the latest targets of Turkish anger last week, as tensions continued to escalate over Rome’s refusal to extradite Kurdish rebel leader Abbdulah Ocalan, wanted in Turkey for his alleged role in more than 29,000 deaths over the past 14 years.
The Turkish government last week pulled the plug on two Italian state-run cable television channels in Turkey and threatened to cancel a $3.5 billion helicopter purchase. Turkish companies also canceled auto contracts and urged boycotts of Italian goods and imports, the BBC reported.
Italy’s Defense Minister Carlo Scognamiglio denounced the measures and warned that Ankara’s actions "will not help Turkey draw closer" to EU admission and member states, according to the Reuters news agency.
Abbdullah Ocalan has applied for asylum in Italy, whose laws bar extradition to any nation–including Turkey–where the death penalty remains in force.
WASHINGTON
Washington Post writer Mike Mills contemplates whether consumers who pump storeowners for information and guidance and then make their purchases over the Internet are unethically exploiting retailers.
Mills says it’s time to start asking whether the cheapest price should be the only factor in the bottom line equation, and whether price information should be seen as simply "another set of data, to be balanced by other equally valid factors," such as service, integrity, and the rapid disappearance of mom-and-pop stores.
DENVER
An increasing number of employers is testing for drugs at the workplace, drastically lowering the number of qualified applicants for open positions and re-shaping hiring policies to protect corporate profits, reports the Christian Science Monitor.
But while drug-testing has increased over the last decade–becoming standard practice at 98 percent of Fortune 200 companies and part of workplace life for nearly half of U.S. workers–the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information estimates that roughly 10 million drug using Americans still slip through the cracks. They often work for smaller companies that still don’t screen for illicit substance abuse, the Monitor reports.
Observers note that tight labor markets and industries with high turnover rates–especially construction, manufacturing, labor, food-service, and retail–tend to have the lowest drug-testing rates and the highest levels of substance abuse among employees.
That combination is a recipe for trouble, says Richard Keil, a drug treatment specialist with the Colorado state government. "Nowadays, hiring without a drug program is in itself a liability risk for a company," Keil tells the Monitor. "They want to have competent workers that don’t put the company or the public at risk."
Global warming has for many years been an issue pitting some environmentalists against multinational business, as well as many environmental groups against one another. Earlier this month, a milestone was reached in a United Nations-brokered world agreement on the issue at a conference in Buenos Aires. The agreement has become a flash point, as some say it doesn’t require enough from industrialized nations, and some business interests complain that it puts too much power over domestic policy in the hands of countries other than the U.S.
Here, from Policy.Com, is a briefing on this multinational right vs. right issue.
"The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change began in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. Representatives from 150 nations convened to hammer out the details of an international treaty designed to establish legally binding limitations on emissions of greenhouse gases. . . .
"The Fourth Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention on Climate Change ended with an international agreement. The two-year plan of action adopted Nov. 14, 1998, in Buenos Aires sets timetables for the completion of plans to moderate global climate change. The protocol calls on 38 industrialized nations, which emit most of the gases, to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 benchmark levels by 2010. . . .A total of 37 nations and international organizations signed the 1997 protocol, including developed nations that account for 39 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions. Under the treaty, the United States has pledged to reduce its emissions of the gases thought to cause global warming to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
"One of the mechanisms to aid industry in reducing emission rates is a carbon trading process outlined in Buenos Aires. Carbon trading allows countries to buy and sell their Kyoto-established quotas for carbon dioxide emissions. Those nations with surplus quotas will sell to nations emitting gases above authorized levels. The accord will allow Australia to actually increase its carbon dioxide emissions. And the United States is looking to buy credits from Eastern European nations that would not use them to begin with. . . ."
"Education has now become the chief problem of the world, its one holy cause. The nations that see this will survive, and those that fail to do so will slowly perish…. There must be re-education of the will and of the heart as well as of the intellect, and the ideals of service must supplant those of selfishness and greed."
–Granville Stanley Hall (1844-1924)
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