

Opinion: Corporate Morality Is Not a Group Effort  - qhoxie
http://gigaom.com/2008/10/28/opinion-corporate-morality-is-not-a-group-effort/

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iigs
_Why not take a more individualistic moral stand and stop doing business in
China (or any other place that routinely violates human rights) and show the
world that your principles demand you to forego current and future profits?_

This joke is attributed to Rodney Dangerfield^W^WWinston Churchill (thanks
gojomo):

A man approaches a beautiful woman in a bar, and without any small talk, asks
her "If I give you a dollar will you sleep with me?" The woman is instantly
angry and tells the man "Absolutely not!" Before she can get away from the man
he asks her a second question. "Will you sleep with me for a million dollars?"
Now the woman pauses and after some thought says "Yes, I will." The man
responds "How about for twenty dollars?" Again the woman looks indignant and
says "Of course not. What kind of a woman do you think I am?" The man replies
"I thought we just settled that. I was just negotiating the price."

What country isn't guilty of committing _any_ human rights violations? If a
nation has committed even one, then it merely comes down to how you choose to
define "routinely".

It's easy to shout "Ethics! Purity! Walk away and show them the light!" into
your blog from the hollowed ground of your basement, but it's a whole
different matter to actually make real changes in the world. There's a very
valid case for walking the most moral legal line in a country that is being
forced toward moral behavior in order to interact with the rest of the first
world. If the "moral first world" all indignantly turn their backs on nations
that don't meet some arbitrary self imposed definition of morality, you can
expect the abandoned nations to fill the void their own way. Don't be
surprised if you don't like the outcome.

~~~
gojomo
The "...just negotiating the price" line is more commonly attributed to a
drunken Winston Churchill.

~~~
iigs
Now that you mention it, it fits more into Churchill's type of humor -- a
little more build up than self deprecating one line zingers.

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ram1024
lol how is google supposed to know that a simple ad for determining the gender
of a fetus is connected to gender discriminatory abortion companies in india?

people will say anything to stain a large company's image. i'd award some kind
of libel/slander countersuit for such reckless media coverage. ridiculous.

