In Your Best Interest

I took a business ethics class while working towards my MBA. I am one class short of my degree and will probably never go back to get the MBA for two reasons. One, it will not benefit me in any way I can see. Two, I already have a business degree so what is the point of going over the same old ground. If I ever do get the chance to go back to school, it will be for a Masters in History. At least it is different and I find it to be vastly more interesting than accounting, finance and marketing. Anyway, back to my ethics class.

One of the questions posed to the students was, if you walk by a lake on your way to you final exam and there is a child drowning in the lake, should you save the child or go take the exam. That was a no brainer. You save the child. Now if this exam was so important that you would have to repeat the class if you missed it, no make up, what would you do? Again, it was no brainer, save the child. Ethically, this is not a dilemma I am having problems with. Our instructor wanted to see if we were compassionate toward those who were less fortunate or to put it a better way, the fight against world poverty. I pushed the envelope one step further. I asked if the next time I went to take that final exam and the same thing happened, what should I do? And the next and the next and so on. At what point do you sacrifice your own future for the welfare of someone who keeps jumping into the lake without knowledge of how to swim. What happens if you are so tired from a late night of studying that you drown while trying to save the child?

I have had 10 years to think about that problem. The most obvious solution is to put a fence around the lake and post signs, no swimming. But that punishes those who can swim. It takes away everyone’s rights to protect an ignorant few. The next solution is to test each person on their ability to swim before letting them go into the lake. It now comes down to who pays for that expense. I am not the one who wants to swim. I just want to take my exam so I can graduate. I am not concerned with what is going on in the lake yet, as my priority is to focus on my own future. The obvious solution is more long term and involves teaching everyone to swim. That assumes people want to learn and aren’t candidates for the Darwin Awards.

I see no reason to punish everyone due to one person’s lack of capability. I do not see it as my issue because a large group of people living under a repressive regime cannot feed themselves. If we send food, it is confiscated by the governments to feed the troops that are oppressing the people. That leaves you with a warm and fuzzy. If we let them starve we are rich, fat Americans who do not care about those living in poverty. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. It appears that some people want to be victims instead of taking responsibility for their own future. I prefer to address the issue and create a path for success. Take a look at 1776 as the how to guide. I guess I am just brainwashed into believing that the tools are available to the select few and those less fortunate are on their own. NOT.

Icool


Cobb