Ethics and the Capitalist‐Liberal Organisation: Implications for a Social Economy in the United States

Abstract

Over the last several years, reports of scandals and questionable business and political behaviour have appeared in American society with seemingly increasing frequency. They range from athletic and military recruiting misdeeds to public officials and private businessmen accepting bribes and payoffs. These wrongdoings are not limited to working adults, as students have been involved in such misbehaviour as cheating in examinations and falsifying school records. Crimes of all types among youth and adults, especially violent crimes, are on the increase. Suicide, drug addiction, and alcoholism are rising. If there were measures for impoliteness and rudeness, it is possible that these, too, would show an increase. In public places there seems to be less regard for other people and their property, as indicated by the shoving and crowding in ticket lines, and by the trash and garbage left behind at movie theatres, concerts, sporting events, parks, beaches, and public places generally. To many observers, the United States has become a nation of self‐centred, disposable consumers who are always seeking to take advantage of the other person. Whether it is the corporation or the governmental agency, the big business executive, the small businessperson, the student, the athlete, the athletic and military recruiting officers, the hourly worker, the doctor, the lawyer, the politician, the government bureaucrat, the fan, the theatre‐goer, or the local gardener—all are trying to outdo their competitors in the contest for personal success and survival. And it appears that the contestants are transgressing the rules of the game in increasing numbers. What society defines as ethical behaviour is far less than that.

Citation

Evans, J.W. (1981), "Ethics and the Capitalist‐Liberal Organisation: Implications for a Social Economy in the United States", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 85-99. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb013893