Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'business ethics'

July 11, 2018

Corporations: moral, immoral, or amoral?

Is the free market moral? To hear its opponents describe it, the free market is an unethical system that exploits workers, consumers and the environment to make a quick buck. To critics such as Marx, capitalism leaves “no other bond between man and man than naked self-interest,” replacing human connections with cost-benefit analyses and supply-and-demand charts. Continue Reading...
December 03, 2014

Greasing Palms Makes For Dirty Business

If corruption were a global industry, it would be the third largest, accounting for 5 percent of the global economy. In many parts of the world, bribery and corruption are simply considered the price of doing business. Continue Reading...
August 12, 2014

Wanted: Code of Shareholder Ethics

With the mountain of books and articles that have been written about business ethics, one wonders why nothing much has been written on what we might call shareholder ethics. I’m thinking of religious shareholder activists such as As You Sow and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. Continue Reading...
August 11, 2014

‘The Holy War on Corporate Politicking’

Acton’s president and co-founder, Rev. Robert Sirico, recently wrote a piece for Real Clear Religion about corporations and social justice activism. He warns that the religious left’s attempts to stifle free speech in corporate boardrooms  would certainly negatively impact our political life. Continue Reading...
July 24, 2014

Why Liberals Should Support the Hobby Lobby Decision

When the Supreme Court ruled on the Hobby Lobby case, the near universal reaction by liberals was that it was a travesty of epic proportion. But as self-professed liberal law professor Brett McDonnell argues, the left should embrace the Hobby Lobby decision since it supports liberal values: The first question was: Can for-profit corporations invoke religious liberty rights under RFRA? Continue Reading...
December 12, 2013

Conscience Is Key To Business, But Only The ‘Correct’ Kind

Business, we are told, is supposed to have a conscience to survive. For instance, Chad Brooks at Fox Business says that businesses have to be “socially conscience” in order to attract customers: Young consumers consider social responsibility most when shelling out big bucks for products such as automobiles, computers, consumer electronics and jewelry, the study found. Continue Reading...