EC Business Ethics – Kolyo D.

I don’t think that Edison’s behavior should be justified in any way. what he did was inhumane and just bad business practice he would have never have to kill all of those animals if he actually had the sense to look at the battle he was fighting and realize that his position was a lost cause he would have lost no matter what and as history shows he did. In the business sense sometimes it is profitable to be unethical but that is why we have ethics to tell us what is right and what is wrong and to let us know when we have reached that point. Edison was wrong in every sense.

EC blog – Ryan C

Like many people, I do not believe that Edison’s practices were very ethical. There are laws now restricting many practices because of their unethical qualities. So Edison’s acts were unethical, but were they good business? To answer this question, we must answer another: what defines good business?

I think everyone would agree that good customer service and honesty make for the best business. When a customer is treated fairly and courteously, the customer does not complain that they were plagued by ‘bad business’. But does this mean that the distinction between good and bad business has nothing to do with money? I believe so. If good business were defined by how much money was made, the businesses that cheat their customers and investors would be defined as ‘good’. I believe that we have a much easier time defining good business as opposed to bad business. But if we look at the history of Edison’s company, it did well when its concerns were for public safety and cheaply providing a new technology to as many people as possible. Once the company’s interests turned to defeating rival companies with whatever means necessary, their business practices went from good to bad, and the financial situation later reflected that.

Ethics and Business – Kevin Smith

I think that some people don’t think that Edison did anything wrong because they have more of a business attitude rather than an ethical attitude. Ethics can sometimes get in the way of making money because sometimes companies act ‘grimy’ or ‘dirty’ to get what they want. Some companies can try to undermine other companies like Edison was trying to do, by trying to give the AC system a bad connotation to drive them out of business. I believe if your product is good enough, you dont need propaganda to demote other products and glorify yours. Bad ethics may sometimes be good business but good ethics allows you to sleep good at night.

EC Ethics and Business – Wesley C

In business, the man limited by his sense of ethics (outlawed ethics is not included) is going to be sorely disappointed with his outcome. There is a limit however to how brutal one can be as; no deformity of ethics can go discovered by the general public, as the public’s perception is never understanding, but always negative. The greatest business comes from the greatest Brutus, seemingly friendly, but plotting in the background. While Edison’s tactics were highly unethical, his business tactic was relatively successful: the general population began to associate AC with death. Among businessmen today, the tactic could be justified. However, Edison provided no proof of his claims, and today, competitive reaction would immediately disprove of his unsupported claims. The intention of the attack could be well justified business-wise if he could support his claims with factual information instead of exploiting his reputation.

EC Business Ethics – Marlon

Ethical behavior is not always ideal for good business practice. In Edison’s case, he looked at it to be ethical because he was trying to promote the safety of the public and stop alternating current from taking more innocent lives. To some it was bad ethics because he contradicted himself by experimenting alternating current on living creatures. In modern time, Edison would be in jail for animal cruelty charges. His involvement with capital punishment was very unethical because their was an idea of killing. However, he let some people see how horrible AC really was.

Now in modern businesses I believe sometimes bad ethics promotes good business. Edison’s experimentation of animals to prove that DC was better than AC was very unethical in modern business. Another example of bad ethics that promote good business is the bootleggers that sell booze in the 1920s during the Prohibition. They sold booze even though it was illegal during that time. Selling booze in the black market was bad ethics but the people who sold gained vast amounts of money. Furthermore, most stores nowadays gives sales on products, but in the fine print they tell you that you have to pay the full price first. Then do the rebate to get the actual sale price. I believe that this process is bad ethics due to the fact that the stores try to take advantage of some people that forget to do rebate and don’t read the fine print. All in all, good business practice doesn’t always involve ethical behaviors.

EC Business Ethics – Elton

What Edison showed to the public to demonstrate that alternating current was an example of bad ethics.  The killing of anything to prove a point is bad ethics.  When he did this act it also lowered the reputation of the opposing competition, which is good for business.  Disgracing the name of a product will mean less people will trust it and less people will buy it.  Edison showed bad ethics by doing these demonstrations, but in turn provided a good business scheme to bring down the competition.  I believe this to be true because by my standards it is cruel to kill anything even if it means your going to be that much more successful.

Extra Credit on ethics and business-June Sri

Good business practices do not always involve with ethical behavior. Edison’s involvement in capital punishment was very unethical, yet very profitable for his business. Looking from economic and business world perspective, Edison tried to decrease the demand for Westinghouse’s AC system and increase the demand for his DC system. DC system, as a substitute of AC system, would be used more. Edison did quite a right thing in business world if no ethical issue was concerned.

I think that tactics that Edison used do not directly justify in modern business, but those tactics come in another form that look more ethical. We could see that in modern business world such as an unethical business practices in US health insurance companies. Some insurance companies do not tell the consumer about many health exceptions that would not be covered in an insurance. Some consumers spend all money they gain from work to pay for health insurance, and that when the insurance doesn’t cover their health issue, they could not effort to get help from the doctor. Another example is the bank’s unethical overdraft fee practices. Many banks give a special offer to people with low income. Those banks want people with low income to overuse their money, become overdraft, and do not effort to pay those money back. When those people do not effort to pay back, and they have to find other ways to get money otherwise the dept would continuously increase (which is what banks want to happen). Some people lose everything they have in life because of those depts. Some people commit suicide because they could not find the way to get out of the dept. Bank companies were very beneficial from those overdraft fee from low income families. They get a great profit out of it, but they had a very unethical business behavior. Good business practices do not always involve with ethical behavior.