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Ethical and Sustainable
Business
- The Only Way to Survive Into The
Future
Author
Lesley
Pocock
Abstract
Non-sustainable
and non-ethical business has not only
caused the 'Global Financial Crisis'
it has also destroyed the planet and
any foreseeable future for the life-forms
that inhabit it.
We not only have cruel, exploitative,
evil, polluting and destructive businesses
of no value whatsoever, these same
businesses have felt it was okay to
deplete the very last resources from
the planet, and often for unnecessary
goods and with no regard whatsoever
to the needs of future generations
of people, or other life forms dependent
on the same ecosphere.
Simply, the approach
has been stupid if not downright evil
and we the people of the planet have
been totally insane to let a few destroy
the entire planet. It is as simple
as that.
It does not take
a Harvard business degree to see the
cause of the global economic meltdown.
Indeed it seems a Harvard business
degree almost guarantees economic
blindness and bad practice, and the
majority of global businesses to date
have been very poorly run if you look
at their full global impact. Could
we have ever run a planet more poorly
than this? I doubt it.
I am suggesting
that unethical and unsustainable business
has caused the destruction of the
planet and the current financial 'crisis',
and that if we turned to sustainable
and ethical business most, if not
all of these problems would be eliminated.
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The global economy
has been based on totally false assumptions
and extremely poor practices up till
now, culminating in the current and
inevitable Global Finance Crisis (GFC)
and far more importantly as the GFC
is merely a symptom of bad practice,
the imminent death of our planet.
This global financial
and planetary crisis may end up being
the only way to save both the planet
and humanity as a species, if we can
use it as the catalyst for greatly
needed change.
While things improved up until the
1960's in terms of advancement of
civilization we have been rapidly
declining on all indicators since
then and global society has now reached
its lowest ebb.
After centuries
of advancement in areas such as working
conditions and hours, wages, quality
of product, democracy, female rights
and empowerment, abolition of child
and slave labour, we have now lost
nearly all gains from those decades
and the entire global economic system
has collapsed as it was always going
to under such bad leadership and worst
world practice, and the earth is polluted,
poisoned and depleted.
Why? The economic/business
system was never any good in the first
place; it was based on total inequity,
greed, mass pollution and false economy,
depletion of all natural resources,
and using vital natural resources
to make and sell rubbish that people
have no need of.
The parasite industries
(the money market, investment advisors,
funds managers, futures managers)
produce no product and just extract
huge amounts of capital from businesses
that should have been viable, and
are based on corporate greed and the
introduction of middle men who were
never needed. Did we ever need Boards
of Directors and shareholders leaching
from these companies? Probably not.
They are both structures that have
inbuilt mechanisms to destroy the
companies they represent. We have
introduced to business financial drains
that do not contribute to the organisation
and which have very little value.
Rather they have acted as parasites
on valuable industries and sucked
them dry.
In other words
most businesses are unsustainable
and therefore unethical unless we
have a series of disposable planets.
I am not aware that we do.
We have products
that are not only useless; most do
much harm whether in their production
processes, their end product or using
valuable resources regardless of any
need.
Then we have organised
crime as global business leaders.
They produce the global rape slave
trade (of women and children) which
is the 5th biggest 'business' in the
world; 'the global drug trade' is
the 3rd biggest business - that is,
the trade of addicting people to drugs
so they become dependent markets.
How can organised
crime act so freely in every country
if it is not supported by corrupt
politicians and business men, and
corrupt legal systems? Surely in a
properly run country it is easily
identified and eradicated.
It seems some
countries allow some amoral companies
to patent and own food and try to
force farmers globally to use their
inferior product, which causes direct
threat of mass global starvation.
That is their business plan - to have
everyone reliant on their inferior
products. Who gave them that right,
and who gave those people the right
to give them the right - surely food
belongs to all humans. Who gave them
that right to patent our food? Who
could be that stupid or immoral? What
gave the legal system the right to
uphold their abominable claims and
patents?
The same goes
for the 'middle men'. A farmer gets
a few cents a litre for the milk he
produces and the middle men take the
most and then add poisons and fillers
in some cases - to make even more
money. Bakers are not going to go
out of business via the GFC however
- nor will any other business that
provides necessary items.
How on earth could
we allow someone to own the minerals
and other resources of the planet,
dig them out and make money for themselves,
when they belong to all humanity for
the next billion or so years.
When did business
become ethical enough to allow it
to be self-regulating? It is a little
like putting the wolf in charge of
the lambs in today's climate of greed,
but we did that and the results were
the wolves destroyed the planet, and
we let them, and we are still letting
them.
When most people
worldwide have no proper healthcare
or doctors, we have idiots stuffing
their breasts, their penises, their
lips, buttocks, and cheeks with silicone,
carcinogens and other foreign bodies
and while children die from preventable
diseases and most people do not even
have basic medical care. Why aren't
their doctors required to deliver
best practice and if some stupid person
thinks their life is going to be changed
for the good by insertion of a foreign
body - because some corrupt marketer
tells them they look ugly or unmanly
without such a bit of plastic, then
both parties should be sent for psychiatric
assessment.
If we had any
self respect all these charlatans
would be out of business or forced
to do proper medical care. This happens
in the US while so many Americans
themselves go without basic healthcare.
The rich are botoxed and injected
and the poor get nothing; both end
up 'very sick indeed'. Surely if people
are not able to make sane health decisions
then their doctors should take responsibility
and not exploit their weaknesses and
vanities. Obesity and cosmetic surgery
live alongside dire poverty, total
lack of human rights, inequity, injustice,
lack of parity and pure evil.
Theft of organs,
or the buying of organs from poor
well people, in developing nations
to give to older unconscionable people
in developed nations, (and usually
those who have taken all but contributed
nothing), a few extra years of life
is simply abominable. This is anti-medicine,
as is the callous mutilation industry,
known as cosmetic surgery.
Then we have so-called
philanthropic organisations trying
to take over foreign country's infrastructure
and resources and dumping inferior
goods on them under the guise of 'helping'.
i.e., dumping poor quality goods and
services in developing world countries
and expecting them to be 'grateful'.
A whole new unethical industry has
built up here so that those genuinely
trying to do some good in the world
are thwarted by the 'commercial philanthropists
' who use others' money to keep themselves
employed, when if they had any decent
motives they'd pay for these projects
themselves and forgo wages. There
are quite a few of these organisations
operating in Iraq at the moment and
securing 'perpetual contracts' under
the guise of helping. They rely on
complicit or corrupt Iraqis of course.
New US President Barak Obama however
has stated that the US does not want
to take over Iraqi infrastructure
and resources so Iraq would be well
served to make sure this does not
happen by default. There is a growing
industry of people going into war
zones purely for financial purposes
of exploitation of markets.
The absolute worst
of evil markets however has to be
'child porn' (i.e. rape, grievous
bodily harm, psychological torture).
Okay we are used to rampant exploitation
and abuse; but I personally am not
used to seeing children raped to death
- due to the size differential, as
happens in US "snuff movies"
where children are sexually tortured
and killed on film for 'adult entertainment'.
And of course 'child porn' in our
'monkey see, monkey do' world has
caused a massive proliferation of
child rape, assault and murder.
Our very children
have become commodities to be used
when they were meant to be protected
by adults. Funny that in this world
adults have rights and the small and
defenceless (animals and children)
have responsibilities and few rights
- surely the legal system got that
one wrong as well. The young and vulnerable
are the ones who need rights, and
adults should have responsibilities
and be kept to them. There is no moral
justification whatsoever for the rape
and degradation of women and children
no matter how lucrative the market
is for some.
The same goes
for the adopting of third world babies
by the super rich who then leave them
to be looked after by nannies when
the child was better off with their
own mother who they could have supported
financially if they really cared about
the child. But 'giving birth' is no
longer a human function for some;
if it can be avoided and the job passed
to a third world woman who is fed
the message that her own child is
better off with some rich person's
nanny. Why damage your own body when
you can damage someone else's?
The cult of celebrity
(worship of societal parasites) is
also a symptom of our sick society.
Once heroes were clever, or wise,
or courageous, or kind and decent;
not those who 'got a boob job' or
who cleaned up on the stock market
or 'got their face on television or
Facebook' - which has to represent
the most shallow and worthless sentiments
of humanity.
So firstly we
have non-sustainable and non-ethical
business proliferating, but what about
the type of product sold and the type
business itself?
Capitalism is
based on the very ideals that inevitably
destroy an entire planet - the need
for ever larger markets (i.e. increasing
population on an already over populated
planet) and constantly increasing
markets (over-production and depletion
of finite resources that were meant
to last for several billion more years).
The concept of
'inbuilt redundancy' into products
to necessitate constant replacement
or investment is just a cynical marketing
ploy. The marketing and advertising
industry coerce weak people and feed
them on false goals and images to
better market to them, things they
don't need and which ultimately destroy
civilisation - if we can lay claim
to being civilised in the first place.
Does the word
need plastic flowers, penis and breast
implants, shopping channels, and personalised
number plates? Many plastic goods
are made of oil derivatives and so
are many medicines - should we not
be going without plastic frippery
so we can continue to heal the sick
for a few more centuries?
Is manufacture
of a product that is unnecessary,
that causes a depletion of resources,
and that has bad byproducts a worthwhile
business? Yes, if we have a series
of disposable planets, and no, if
we do not. Necessary goods and services
are those that relate to ongoing needs
of life - food, clothing, shelter
and medical care and not much else.
And then there
is the labour aspect. We still have
masses of human trafficking and slavery
outside of the lucrative global rape
business. Women do most of the world's
work for the least of the world's
wages. Animals, women and children
are now exploited like throwaway products.
They have always treated very badly
- but arguably there has been no darker
age than the current one. It is probably
not a coincidence that the re-emergence
of Sodom and Gomorrah on earth, has
occurred in the age with a predilection
for sodomy. So 'modern business' now
extends to criminal, cruel and unjust
acts against fellow humans and fellow
creatures of the planet. Who let this
happen?
War /Defence budgets
are the most backward and uncivilised
aspects of human business (and that
is what is it is and why it is perpetuated).
Little money is spent on positive,
preventive and fruitful behaviours
like peace. Rather the wealth of all
nations, that belonged to all their
people, has been wasted on total rubbish.
If we used our 'defence budgets' to
defend our very existence then we
have found the money we need to use
on planetary repair and survival.
The earth can NOT be saved at this
stage by merely ceasing our destructive
behaviour - to survive now we have
to actively repair, invent, design
and produce processes and products
to mend the planet. There is a whole
new world of sustainable and ethical
business opportunities.
I don't think
this was meant to be a disposable
planet. We have made it so however.
And the 'disposable generations' have
just about disposed of the lot. Most
of the world's rampant consumers have
been led to believe everyone lives
well and has always lived well, but
it is not the case - this throwaway
society is a product of the last few
generations and also does not represent
the global distribution of wealth';
some of the people of the planet are
stuffing their faces with food to
the point of obesity - while most
others go hungry.
With the corporate
greed has also come social greed and
we no longer care that one person
has so much, rather we covet their
wealth and aim to be like them.
Surely the man
who collects our garbage and the nurse
who cleans up our body waste should
be paid more than some TV or film
'star'. Work with no value whatsoever
tends to be well paid while real and
vital work is looked down upon and
poorly rewarded.
This is the only
era where some people expect to have
it all. They do not realise that the
rest of the world, has always gone
without up until now, just so they
can have it all and that most products
they use are not and never were necessary,
and that the wasting of the world's
economy on rubbish is the direct cause
of global poverty - wealthy society
is taking food out of the mouth of
starving children to pay for rubbish
that depletes the planet and has no
worth.
Once people voted
for the political party that would
do the best for the country. Voting
for who is going to give you the most
money is a modern phenomenon.
We should all
be prepared to live at the standard
whereby everyone has the basics. Communism
has been shown to be a disincentive
so there still needs to be scope for
the talented and intelligent to get
ahead, a place for both the termites
and the albatrosses of society, but
not at the expense of basic life needs
of others.
How do we even
tolerate society's extreme commercial
practices that do great harm, and
say it is okay on either a moral or
sanity basis? Where is the morality
or sense in utilising all the world's
resources in a generation and not
leaving any for future generations,
or along with our disposable society
do we see the planet as also disposable
- but that is okay, we have had our
lifetime - who gives a hoot about
anyone else? We've stuffed our faces
and bodies with too much food. Who
cares if babies are starving?
How dare we let
a few rich men literally destroy an
entire planet- for yet more money.
Who gave the planet to these people?
I didn't. How can they assume they
have any right? Why are we not STOPPING
them?
So it has all
gone wrong every single bit of it,
and current corporate greed and its
global repercussions - the assumption
that because other pigs had their
snouts in the trough it was open season
in the piggery of life, to steal life
savings from the elderly, from families,
from those who've worked hard all
their lives, as is still happening
in the US.
Then we have the
abominable exploitation and torture
of animals bred to be unable to live
naturally and that live cruel and
horrible lives of torture as human
products to be eaten, penned, tanned,
engorged. so they will be made into
better food or clothes or unnecessary
products to be consumed by man.
Someone also actually
thought it was okay, and some legal
and political system also said it
was okay, for some unconscionable
people to dig holes all over the planet,
to extract the resources for themselves
and leave humanity the mess, forever.
So morals and
ethics seem to have disappeared and
inanity, greed and selfishness has
replaced them or are we so cowardly
that we'll blindly and mutely trot
along to the end of the earth and
see it destroyed by a few. We can
watch it all dying on television while
that lasts, and then just disappear
like dullards into universal oblivion
- even the dinosaurs did much better
than us, and they were meant to be
creatures of small brain.
We are at our
lowest moral ebb, an era of world's
worst practice, and with everyone
wanting the last few resources for
themselves, before we sink into our
own detritus.
And we sell, destroy
and exploit everyone and everything
- the animals who managed to get it
right are mostly endangered, apart
from those used as our food who are
living in appalling cruel and disgusting
manners.
Yes it is appalling
and it has depleted our planet to
the stage that the scientists have
totally given up, and yes, they are
right in that even stopping our bad
practices at this stage will see the
demise of the planet and the species.
The only way we
can now survive is actively fixing
the same and inventing processes and
systems to assist the earth to right
itself. That is, by coming up with
new ethical and sustainable business.
We do not want more of the same.
Rules of new ethical
business are planet sustaining and
sustaining of human and other earthly
life.
So the future
holds both challenges and so many
opportunities to re-think business
concentrating on ethical practices,
and so many opportunities have opened
in areas of green industry, disposal
and remedying of waste products, recycling,
coming up with major innovative ways
to repair the planet, the air, the
land, the seas, the waterways.
This can happen
on a universal and a national basis
and those industries that actually
address these issues will be the business
leaders of the new world, which can
now only survive on ethics, equity,
parity, and respect. Only food that
does not leave a footprint should
be sold.
Is this just evil,
insanity and lack of intelligence
that has brought us to our knees?
Is it an innate evil in mankind that
he cannot do the right thing, and
are we creatures of such selfishness
and greed that we are happy to destroy
the planet for everything and everyone
else just as long as we can have a
bit to keep for ourselves. Can we
not learn to be great - again?
Or have we got
it wrong to date because we are primitive,
and unintelligent. Are we yet to qualify
as satient beings?
We live in a world
of high infant mortality rates, lack
of healthcare, degraded unviable cities,
and we call this civilization. It
should be called anti-civilisation
as it does not even meet basic population
requirements. Surely a clever business
person is one who can make a product
without destroying half the planet
in the doing so?
And customers
must also start to demand proper products
and services. Men have to say no to
the global pimps and procurers. Farmers
must learn to keep and grow their
own seeds and rebel against anyone
who tries to coerce or bully them.
We must all rebel.
Now this is the
big picture of course, the planetary
picture, but at this late stage, we
ignore it at our peril. We are on
a planet where every life form has
to survive by killing and eating each
other and no matter how enlightened
we may one day become; we are stuck
with that situation and that cruel
reality. But it does not mean however
that we do not strive with all that
we have to turn this cruel world around
and if we worked together then we
have a world of support behind us.
Lesley Pocock
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