Ethics Review: Do We Have To Be Mean to Get Ahead?

“Our forefathers suffered economic injustice before coming to American. For example, in London you could buy shares in the fortunes of a ship that set sail for India. This method enabled the owner and captain to outfit the ship for a trip of three years or more. Often the shares were fully legitimate. When the ship arrived home safely, you got paid, sometimes handsomely. But you had to know the dealer. Unsuspecting people sometimes bought bogus shares or bought shares in a ship that did not exist. They lost their money, and the scoundrel who sold them the shares was nowhere to be found.

In the new United States of America, many man trusted that capitalism would sort things out. They believed the law of supply and demand would keep things in balance and give everyone a fair chance. According to Wikipedia, the law of supply and demand is an economic model in which competition works out for everyone because prices will fluctuate according to how much there is of a certain commodity and how much that product is wanted. There is truth to the basic idea, of course. In a lean year, people still need flour and will pay more for flour. One of the good things about competition as an economic model is that, all things being equal, the person who works the hardest earns the most.

But any model requires judgment and balance. In every village and community throughout early America, people were also cooperative. They had barn raisings and corn husking bees, and when a neighbor lost her husband, others pitched in to get the cows milked.

My point is that, while any good model can be made to work by people of good intention, the same model can be subverted by scoundrels. A recent example is the way some bankers cashed in on the farm crisis in the Midwest, lending to farmers and foreclosing on family farms. Quite possibly the biggest scoundrels were the corporate agribusiness owners, faceless and protected by law, since a corporation is not anybody and cannot be brought to justice or put in jail for crimes. In other words, some people found a way to be mean—and the results are bad for everyone.

Another way that true value gets subverted is in the college degree system. Not that colleges do not sometimes provide a good education, but all too often the degree itself becomes a measure of worth.

Among internet businesses I see competition, plenty of it. Smart, hard working people can do very well indeed and even set themselves up not to have to work so hard. I know of more than one millionaire who never finished high school! And although there are always a few bad characters on the fringes, meanness is noticeably absent. Instead, the most successful entrepreneurs are helping others to succeed. Competition and cooperation are in balance just as they were in early American communities. The resulting atmosphere makes working on the internet fun!

Article by Patricia Lapidus, author of the memoir SWEET POTATO SUPPERS: A Yankee Woman Finds Salvation in a Hippie Village. Patricia is a writer, editor, teacher, and an encourager. Up coming books include SWAMP WALKING WOMAN, a mythic fairy tale about women’s strength, and GIDEON’S RIVER, a novel dedicated to all who live with a temper, their own or someone else’s. Note: SWEET POTATO SUPPERS is due out soon in a second edition. This memoir is for those interested in communities, in spiritual hippies, and in the personal journey of discovery.

Ms. Lapidus is widely read in English and American social theory. See this website

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