Vince Lombardi meets Monty Hall

Dear Bob …

I just read your column on the Vince Lombardi syndrome.  As I sit here, unemployed, because I repeatedly raised an ethics issue with my former employer, I found what you wrote cold comfort.

Yes, we live in a capitalist society. However, capitalism should not be the only operational value in a society.

There are ethics that stand beyond money which I am sure you know and understand well. What I have seen in the past decade is that keeping material wealth above all else has overtaken other values.

I am sure it didn’t start with the Greeks but I often think of their example in the story of the Judgment of Paris. Paris was asked to choose the fairest among three goddesses: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. Hera offered Paris worldly power, and Athena military might. Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful human woman in the world — Helen of Troy. Now, isn’t that what currently happens under unchecked capitalism? We don’t make a decision based on what is asked, but based on what we are bribed to do with money, power, and of course with threats of their removal as well.

Didn’t this way of behaving result in droves of people doing the wrong things at Enron and WorldCom? You have written and large numbers of people act as if capitalism was only about money. It isn’t. Money alone won’t make capitalism work. There have to be real products and real services accommodating real people’s wants and needs, including those of employees for capitalism to work.

Capitalism based on profoundly unethical behaviors where contributions, needs, wants, and money become unbalanced has never worked in the long run. It breeds, instead, a complete attitude of “I don’t care, I just work here” on the part of employees. It also builds anger and paranoia in consumers and consumer groups served whether it is me shopping for groceries or the Pentagon buying services for Iraq reconstruction.

The Christians had a lot of trouble with the legacy of Greek commercialism for a reason — their attachment to commercial practices (and the wealth brought by them) instead of values related to a higher power. I’m not defending Christianity any more than I am doing a ‘dis on capitalism. What I am pointing out is that people shouldn’t just chose between two bad things without making a commitment to making a change even when the cost is high. Sometimes, you, as a columnist, send a message to employees that going along and getting along is OK even when it might be unethical to do so.

Capitalism falters because it is increasingly one-sided — winning at all costs. I think that the best capitalists are those who build on “reasonable expectations” for profit, market share, and for delivering quality.

I still have the American dream of not just material success, but about a life quality, peace with myself and peace with my neighbors. I intend to carry that dream and live it for as long as possible. I think that time may be short, but I’m not going to live like it is, nor am I going to encourage anyone else to do so by shaking my head and going along with unethical behaviors. The American Dream eschews behaviors of Enron employees and of Abu Ghraib prison guards.

Life often throws us an unwanted apple and forces us to make uncomfortable choices. We have to stand tall and make them without Helen of Troy as a prize.

– Stood on principle

Dear Stood …

First of all, the Greeks thought of just about everything first, including civil sanitation systems.

You provided the key insight early in your letter, although I’m not sure you recognized the distinction.

Capitalism is about nothing more than money. (Actually, it’s about “maximizing utility,” which includes things we value other than money.) That’s it. American society, on the other hand, isn’t, or at least shouldn’t be about nothing but capitalism. Society is a superset of its economic system. Principally through government action, and to a lesser extent through community action, society has to establish limits to pure capitalism or it turns, almost literally, into the law of the jungle. Drug dealers and the Mafia are examples of societies characterized by nearly pure capitalism, in fact. They don’t represent a society I care to live in, of course, but that’s the point.

Something I’d like you to think about: You had just a few choices open to you at your old employer. I’m sure one or two of them would have resulted in your continued employment, but they weren’t acceptable to you. So you pursued a different choice. It resulted in your unemployment; also in your having a clear conscience. It had, however, no impact at all on how your former employer conducts its business.

There’s a distinction to be drawn between disassociating yourself from what you consider to be unethical behavior and having a positive impact.

Which is to say you had three choices available to you: Wallow in the muck and enjoy the money; become Machiavellian and have a positive impact while losing a measure of self-respect; or stand on your principles, have no positive impact, lost your job but retain your self-respect.

It’s perfectly valid to have chosen Door Number 3, and I admire you for refusing to choose Door Number 1. I’d call your situation a perfect example of having to hold your nose while choosing the least bad option.

I’m presuming, of course, that you don’t consider unemployment to be a desirable choice.

– Bob

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