Preliminary Contents
Robert D. Hay and Edmund R. Gray believe that corporations should be held accountable for more than profit maximization. Their argument is based on stakeholder theory and is presented in the form of an historical account of the evolution of managerial thinking on this important topic. In answering "no" to this question, Alexei Marcoux presents a frontal attack on stakeholder theory. Consistent with the views of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, Marcoux argues that the very nature of stakeholder theory is immoral and can only lead to disastrous results for all involved.
Larry Gross contends that downsizing violates the psychological and social contracts implicit in the employer-employee relationship since there is an implied sense of job security afforded the employee as long as he or she is productively advancing the goals of the organization. Downsizing productive employees is a clear violation of this contract and, therefore, immoral. Professor Joseph Gilbert analyzes the ethicality of downsizing through the application of three prominent approaches to the study of ethics: utilitarianism, rights and duties, and justice and fairness. Gilbert concludes that, with one notable exception, downsizing is an ethically valid and morally responsible corporate behavior.
Ethics scholar Chris Provis examines bluffing within the context of labor negotiations and concludes that it does indeed constitute unethical behavior. Bluffing, he argues, is deception and therefore, unethical, regardless of whether it occurs in or out of the negotiation process. University of California, Santa Barbara philosopher Fritz Allhoff presents a clever and unique defense of bluffing in business negotiations. The central tenet in Allhoff’s position is that certain roles that we are required to assume allow us to morally justify behaviors that might otherwise be considered immoral.
Legal scholar Robert B. Thompson presents Manne’s argument on insider regulation. Thompson then provides us with an analysis of the status and relevance of Manne’s position three decades after the publication of his seminal text. UCLA professor of law Stephen Bainbridge does not accept Manne’s arguments. Bainbridge believes that insider trading ultimately causes inefficiency in the markets and, therefore, must be subject to regulation.
Stephen J. Rose and Heidi I. Hartmann, scholars at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, argue in their 2004 study that discrimination is still the main reason for the persistence in the gender gap. Naomi Lopez, director of the Center for Enterprise and Opportunity at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco, provides evidence that the wage gap is a function of several different variables beyond gender discrimination. She concludes her analysis with the observation that we may never reduce the wage gap entirely and that such an outcome is not necessarily undesirable.
Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh argue that outsourcing is a real threat to the economic health of the United States and provide several suggestions as to the types of governmental actions necessary to keep American jobs from moving overseas. Included in their discussion is an analysis of the views of the two 2004 presidential candidates, John Kerry and George W. Bush. Dr. Daniel Drezner argues that the controversy surrounding outsourcing is not new and that its current form is more hype than substance. He shows how outsourcing is actually economically beneficial to America, despite the warnings of critics. Dr. Drezner also asserts that the concept of outsourcing is consistent with a solid understanding of free-market capitalism and an appreciation of traditional American principles and values.
Lisa Newton believes that the typical U.S. CEO should not receive ten or more times the annual pay of CEOs in other industrial countries. She also points out, in no uncertain terms, that CEOs are only partly responsible for the ultimate success of their organization and the accompanying increase in shareholder wealth. Ira Kay and Steven Rushbrook believe that U.S. CEOs are entitled to whatever levels of pay they receive. They argue from a free-market perspective where labor, like every other business input, is subject to free-market forces. They also provide a discussion on the incredible amount of wealth U.S. CEOs have created for their shareholders.
Actual testimony taken from a congressional hearing just prior to the vote on the act itself is presented in this article. Included are comments from the authors of the act, Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and Michael Oxley (R-OH). Cato Institute senior fellow Alan Reynolds provides his audience with a scathing indictment of the mind-set and philosophy beyond the creation of the act in his argument that Sarbanes-Oxley was not a positive reaction to the call for corporate governance change.
In his review of The Skeptical Environmentalist, David Pimentel disagrees with Lomborg’s optimistic assessment. He also accuses Lomborg of selectively presenting advantageous data while simultaneously ignoring evidence that is damaging to his position. Denis Dutton, professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, agrees with Lomborg that the environment is much better off than the environmentalists would have us believe.
Foreign policy expert Murray Weidenbaum, in a reprint of a speech he delivered in 2001, promotes his "yes" response by systematically presenting, and then debunking, the most common "myths" surrounding globalization. He believes that globalization is a force for positive change. Professor Herman Daly feels that increasing globalization requires increases in political, social, and cultural integration across borders as well. The outcome is a loss of national identity for the countries involved as power is transferred from traditional domestic sources—i.e., governments, domestic businesses, local enterprises—to transnational corporations.
The first article, written by scholars Richard Appelbaum and Peter Dreier, chronicles the rise of the grassroots, college campus, anti-global sweatshops movement in the late 1990s. Columnist and social commentator Radley Balko argues that sweatshops are not exploitative. His article presents several additional points frequently offered in defense of globalization in general, and sweatshops in particular.
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