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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ratan lal who wrote (10636)	11/17/2001 4:26:09 AM
From: bela_ghoulashi	Respond to of 281500

Well, I can't give you precise numbers, but I think you've established just about the right hierarchy <vbg>. All kidding aside, most businesses in the United States are run by small businessmen and I think it's safe to say a far higher percentage of them are moral and ethical than not. There are always poisonous examples to the contrary, of course, but it's too simplistic to paint them all with the same brush. Businesses will not succeed, as a rule, if the participants engaged in them cannot be fundamentally trusted. Businesses are run by humans, and humans are neither infallible nor omniscient, but they do generally seek to operate in circumstances that are predictable, that follow a set of rules that are easily recognized and easily agreed on, and where arbitrary or unfair deviations from those rules are discouraged and even punished if necessary. There are always exceptions, but there is always a "norm" as well. At the end of the day, most people do not want to look at themselves and say "I got ahead by cheating or taking advantage of someone else". They'd rather say: "I provided something of value by my effort and earned the fruit of my labor."

To: ratan lal who wrote (10636)	11/17/2001 8:15:06 AM
From: Bilow	Respond to of 281500

Hi ratan lal; Re: "What percentage of US ..." I'm not sure what this has to do with our foreign policy, but I'll take a swing... Businesses: 90% are fundamentally honest. Business has to sell to survive, and the vast majority of businesses have to sell to the same customers over and over. (Examples: supermarkets, computer makers, newspapers, etc.) You can fool people once or twice, but fooling your customers (or treating them dishonestly) just isn't good business. This is not to say that everything that all of their employees ever do is "honest", just to say that their fundamental business is honest. Lawyers: 75% or more. The vast majority of lawyers do rather dull work representing rather dull clients. If they get caught doing something dishonest, they can lose their license (Clinton). In court, their job is to present their client's side of the case. While it's (more or less) true that half of all lawyers are representing the side that is (more or less) wrong, that has nothing to do with the fundamental honesty of the lawyers. Politicians: 50% or more. If the world had nothing but politicians who were fundamentally dishonest, it would be easy enough to simply put up a candidate who was refreshingly honest. But it isn't that simple. Every politician is going to have issues about which they dance around the truth. This is not an amazing thing, nor is it a sign of their being "fundamentally" dishonest. If I go home to my relatives and talk to them there are truths that I, too, will have to dance around. The last thing that we need is a politician who is 100% honest. Used car sales persons: At least 75% are fundamentally honest. The ratio is lower than for businesses as a whole because repeat sales are reduced. The same can be said for used home sales persons. It's not like the phrase "let the buyer beware" was invented in the United States, or recently. The vast majority of the population is fundamentally honest. It wouldn't be possible for the country to be as fundamentally healthy (medically, economically, or politically) were that not the case. But it's the exceptions that make the news. When a man loves his family and doesn't choose to murder his wife and kids and put the bodies into a storage locker it doesn't make the news. The same with all the other honest activity that happens every day. -- Carl