The Ethics Of The New Economy

Is restructuring an underhanded way to make the rich richer and the poor poorer? Or is it necessary, although bitter, medicine for an ailing economy? In The Ethics of the New Economy: Restructuring and Beyond, professionals from the fields of philosophy, ethics, management, as well as those representing the groups affected by restructuring, tackle thorny ethical issues. Referring to concrete case studies, these timely essays discuss a variety of topics, including justified and unjustified restructuring; employers’ obligations during the restructuring process; equity issues; the rise of part-time employment; the effects of restructuring on communities; the internal risks faced by restructuring corporations; deprofessionalization in health care; the consequences of restructuring in the developing world; philanthropy and cause-related marketing; corporate “judo” and restructuring; and responsible and irresponsible restructuring.

This book features eleven essays by leading scholars in economics and philosophy who argue for a renewal of the bond between the two disciplines. This book was published as a combination of the special issues Review of Political Economy and Review of Social Economy.

A more ethical economic system is now possible, one that rectifies the crisis spots of our current downturn while balancing the injustices of extreme poverty and wealth. Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen, a scholar and an entrepreneur, outline the shape such an economy might take, identifying its origins in innovations already existent in our production, valuation, and distribution systems. Much like nineteenth-century entrepreneurs, philosophers, bankers, artisans, and social organizers who planned a course for modern capitalism that was more economically efficient and ethically desirable, we now have a chance to construct new instruments, institutions, and infrastructure to reverse the trajectory of a quickly deteriorating economic environment. Considering a multitude of emerging phenomena, Arvidsson and Peitersen show wealth creation can be the result of a new kind of social production, and the motivation of continuous capital accumulation can exist in tandem with a new desire to maximize our social impact. Arvidsson and Peitersen argue that financial markets could become a central arena in which diverse ethical concerns are integrated into tangible economic valuations. They suggest that such a common standard has already emerged and that this process is linked to the spread of social media, making it possible to capture the sentiment of value to most people. They ultimately recommend how to build upon these developments to initiate a radical democratization of economic systems and the value decisions they generate.

This book takes a multi-disciplinary critique of economics' first principles: the fundamental and inter-related structuring assumptions that underlie the neo-classical paradigm. These assumptions, that economic agents are rational, self-interested individuals, continue to influence the teaching of economics, research agendas and policy analyses. The book argues that both the theoretical understanding of the economy and the actual working of real-world market economies diminish the scope for thinking about the relation between ethics, economics, and the economy. It highlights how market economies may "crowd out" ethical behavior and our evaluation of them elides ethical reflection. The book calls for a more pluralistic and richer approach to economic theory, one that allows ample room for ethical considerations. It provides insight into understanding human motivations and human flourishing and how a good economy requires reflection on the ethical relations between the self, world, and time.

Business Ethics for a New Economy Capitalism "as is" has served us well in the past and produced great wealth, but at a terrible price to the environment. Corporations arrived at the height of their growth and made enormous fortunes by abusing their power and doing business "at all cost". The environment and humankind are paying a high price for "their progress." They have endangered and depleted our vital resources such as our fertile soil and clean water, affected the world economy, and led to instability and conflict in many nations. The world is suffering from a "global burnout." These are all symptoms of the same illness: greed. Corporate greed and corruption have led us into a world crisis. The crisis is not just caused by pollution or the use of technology but represents a crisis of the whole life system. The pollution and destruction of our natural resources are only the symptoms and consequences of the underlying problems. The problem itself is an ethical one. The old ethics in business of I want it now and more does not work anymore, we have seen what is has done to our lives and the economy. We need to create new social value and practice business in such a manner that helps to eradicate poverty and not solely for the sake of our own survival. The B Lab, a nonprofit, has created a new model, the B Corporation, which simultaneously creates social value and will redefine success in business. It is an alternative to traditional corporations, which only maximize profits for shareholders. The B Corporation is a new type of corporation that uses the power of business to solve environmental and social problems. It is a legal structure with higher standards of accountability and transparency. This new way of doing business is the first systemic response to address the underlying problems of our financial crisis. By 2050, an estimated 100 million people will go hungry if we do not find a solution to the food and water shortages. Over 60 percent of the world's population will live in water-stressed areas by 2025, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Our soil has been destroyed after years of being abused through harmful farm practices and inorganic fertilizers and thus depleted our food resources of essential minerals. Besides ethical reasons to assist poor countries now and in the future, we must keep it our priority if we want to avoid more conflict caused in these regions due to the devastating effects of climate change. Food and water security will lead to increased migration and instability. Interdependence is the driving force of our time. With globalization all the environmental and humanitarian problems in countries far away have also become our problems. We have created them and must face the reality that we need to not just fix' them temporarily but solve them at their root. We need a new economic system- one that is more sustainable than our old system, which has failed. Our society is interlocked with the rest of the world through business and environmental interests, and we have a common interest to cooperate. We need a "greening of capitalism." The answer to creating a new business model- which profits society, as well as shareholders- is in establishing a B Corp known as a Benefit Corporation. Blurb from Esquire:" B corps might turn out to be like civil rights for blacks or voting for women- eccentric, unpopular ideas that took hold and changed the world."

Should the idea of economic man—the amoral and self-interested Homo economicus—determine how we expect people to respond to monetary rewards, punishments, and other incentives? Samuel Bowles answers with a resounding “no.” Policies that follow from this paradigm, he shows, may “crowd out” ethical and generous motives and thus backfire. But incentives per se are not really the culprit. Bowles shows that crowding out occurs when the message conveyed by fines and rewards is that self-interest is expected, that the employer thinks the workforce is lazy, or that the citizen cannot otherwise be trusted to contribute to the public good. Using historical and recent case studies as well as behavioral experiments, Bowles shows how well-designed incentives can crowd in the civic motives on which good governance depends.

The edited volume New Economies for Sustainability: Limits and Potentials for Possible Futures brings together a range of alternative views on economy and organization to illustrate different perspectives on how to work towards more sustainable solutions to production, consumptions and economic organization more generally. The book brings chapters from the most renowned scholars in the field, who bring their perspectives on how alternative schools theorize politics, society, organization, nature and ethics in their attempts to develop theories with a strong focus on sustainability. The book aims to contribute with a platform for gathering and collecting these theories in a pluralist economic framework, which can provide a strong alternative voice to mainstream economic theories in sustainability debates.

This book inquires into the Capability Approach, a value theory of freedom, which crystalizes the interests of Marx, Welfare Economics, Social Choice, and Ethics. The capability approach has attracted many people as a promising interdisciplinary approach to human well-being and social worlds, finely overarching ethical and economic concerns. It has well challenged essential characteristics of welfare economics, which focuses on the criterion of efficiency with the concept of utility, by explicitly incorporating normative criteria such as agency, well-being and real freedom into positive analysis. However, it has a bit operational and methodological difficulties such that how to estimate an individual capability set which includes potential multi-dimensional functioning vectors. This book reminds the reader of what traditional economics has left behind, by examining historical backgrounds, scrutinizing philosophical foundations and providing an operational formulation of the capability approach: indispensable for understanding what the capability approach is about and what it can achieve.