Corporate America Could Benefit From More Self Restraint

For deregulation to succeed, business must exhibit the accountability and social responsibility demanded of others, an internationally recognized ethicist impressed upon Spokane business executives and students last week.

“If we agree,” the Rev. Gerald Cavanaugh said, “that the less-regulated a society is, the better that society will be … then it puts a burden on all of us to be ethical.

“Because you can’t have it both ways,” declared the educator, lecturer, author of numerous works on business values and ethics, and chancellor of Detroit Mercy University. “You can’t have a decent society that respects other people - that respects integrity - without some kind of internal restraint.”

And evidence of self restraint in today’s society is “not encouraging,” advised the keynoter at Gonzaga University’s annual Aram Lecture on Business Ethics.

“I submit to you,” said the Jesuit scholar, “that if we had set out 25 years ago to undermine the values of our society through our own media and through television advertising - if we had really gone out to destroy the family, to destroy ethics, to make people shortsighted - we could not have done a better job.”

Blunt.

It might even be too strong, confessed Cavanaugh in a talk on “A Global View of Deregulation and the Ethical Implications.”

“I’ll leave you,” he said, “to think about that, and pray. But I honestly believe it.”

Consider the documented evidence:

Television violence is overwhelming, said Cavanaugh. Family violence is epidemic.

Last year there were 200,000 homicides in the United States. “The American Medical Association estimates - looking at the record - that almost half of these deaths were a direct result of television violence,” he reported. “Is it a surprise that we have the highest murder rate in the world?”

Compounding our social dilemma, we are a “get it now” society, Cavanaugh said. We have the highest consumption rate relative to personal income in the world. Our business advertising and our culture celebrate the “consumer society.”

Americans have 2.5 percent of the world’s children - and buy 60 percent of the world’s toys.

Material possessions, toys, substitute for spiritual rewards - time with the family.

Serious studies, Cavanaugh said, all indicate that “Advertising has a profound affect on people’s attitudes and values - especially children.” And the TV image of Americans is troubling.

As portrayed by television programming, business people are shysters. “To succeed, all they seem to do is lie, cheat, steal, blackmail or even murder.”

Incongruously, the advertisers who demand these programs “are the same firms and executives looking for people to work for them who are responsible, who are prudent, and who demonstrate integrity.”

In other words, business wants workers to do as I say, not as I do.

This expert says that while the capitalistic free-market system does provide many pluses - “jobs, products, efficiencies, flexibilities, creativity” - it also has serious flaws. “And if left unchecked,” said Cavanaugh, “the system gravitates toward narrow, selfish, greedy, very self-centered interests. And we’re seeing that now in certain basic areas.”

He cited billionaire takeovers and breakups of companies and families purely as an exercise in greed. “You chop it up into pieces and make some money and you walk away.”

Another example is pro sports, he said, citing the scurrilous excesses, the outrageous abuses, the astronomical pay, the sorry misconduct. Even more corrosive on the character of youth, he said, are the media hype and business advertising glorifying any and all who can throw a ball or a punch as “heroes.”

“I find the same thing in the salaries of entertainers. The market system says it’s OK. I don’t want to say it isn’t OK - but we pay a heavy price. A heavy price.”

There are, however, “some good signs out there.” In places, business groups are organizing to focus on business responsibilities.

“We even have firms now,” he said, “who advertise that they are socially responsible.” Though in some instances it is false advertising.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel’s column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review