The economy of virtue
by Bob Williams

It seems every day we hear about another corporation in trouble for “cooking” or “fudging” its books . . .

Since 1997, more than 1,000 U.S. companies have “restated” their earnings after the heat was turned up on their accounting practices. As a result, public confidence in “Big Business” has severely eroded.

A recent Gallup poll showed that a substantial percentage of Americans believe unethical behavior is widespread in the business community. This is not surprising. The number of people who view business as the biggest threat to our nation has increased from 22 percent in October 2000 to 38 percent today. This lack of trust is chiseling away the very foundation of our economy.

Our free enterprise system relies on honesty and service to others. Greed has too often replaced integrity in the corporate world and has pushed our economy toward a dangerous precipice. But this crisis will not be solved with a few new rules or expanded government powers. Its roots run far deeper—into the very soil of cherished American institutions like our families, churches and schools.

Due to family tragedy, I literally grew up in a private school. It was nonsectarian, but school officials were determined to teach us to value duty, honor and integrity–to differentiate right from wrong. To help us “get it,” we had daily prayer and readings from the Bible. General Douglas MacArthur’s “Duty, Honor, Country” speech was displayed in our classroom. We were taught that a good name was to be highly valued and that our word was our bond. “Doing our own thing” was far from our minds.

Though we came from what would be labeled today as severely disadvantaged backgrounds, most of us who attended that school made something of our lives, and we learned to serve others with integrity.

Alarmingly, many young people today don’t understand that right and wrong exist. In fact, they have been taught that it is all relative. The importance of ethics, morality, duty and allegiance to laws and Authority higher than one’s self have been removed from their formative institutions. Pampering a child’s self-esteem has replaced the solid foundation necessary to develop character.

This insidious tendency has spread all the way to the college level. A recent poll commissioned by the National Association of Scholars (NAS) revealed that three-quarters of all college students are taught by their professors that right and wrong depend “on differences in individual values and cultural diversity.”

True, but what is left unspoken is the reality that nearly every culture and religion share common virtues–virtues such as those found in the Ten Commandments about stealing, lying, murdering, coveting, and the like.

The same NAS poll reported that college students are taught that corporate policies promoting “progressive” social and political goals are superior to policies that ensure stockholders and creditors an accurate accounting of a company’s finances.

More than half (56 percent) of all college seniors believe the only meaningful difference between Enron executives and those at other big companies is that Enron “got caught.”

NAS concluded in its study that there are “significant” reasons to be concerned with the poll results: “. . . It seems reasonable to believe that when students leave college convinced that ethical standards are simply a matter of individual choice, they are less likely to be reliably ethical in their subsequent careers.”

Indeed. Imagine the continued impact on our society as another generation of students graduate into a world where they and their colleagues believe the ethical boundaries are made up as you go along.

Consider the Medicaid fraud recently uncovered at the University of Washington. Instead of cooperating with federal investigators to root out the problem, university officials stonewalled and spent more than $10 million to thwart the investigation. Regents were more concerned with protecting the image of the university than eliminating the problem. What is a college student to think when the grown-ups behave so badly?

A recent Luntz poll adds to my deep concern. The poll of college students found that:

• 71% disagree with the statement that U.S. values are superior to the values of other nations.
• 57% believe the policies of the U.S. are “at least somewhat responsible” for the September 11 terrorist attacks.
• 60% believe “developing a better understanding of the values and history of other cultures and nations that dislike us is a better approach to preventing terrorism than investing in strong military and defense capabilities at home and abroad.”

And what are these values that 71 percent do not agree are superior? “[T]hat all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Those are the values we have believed are worth fighting for; that have caused us to form a strong military in the first place.

Our founders appreciated diplomacy and the differences in the values and history of other cultures. They believed, as should we, that the freedom that gives us uniquely American rights and privileges insists we allow others to feel differently. But they developed and gave to us an autonomous culture based on particular tenets. When those tenets are threatened, we have, until lately, understood that a battle must be waged and won.

These basic tenets are not only absent in the understanding and appreciation of American school children, they are being undermined at every turn in our public institutions. In general, families, civic institutions and places of worship do little to combat this onslaught against our children and our country’s roots. What do we expect from a couple of generations of children taught that ethics are relative, and who are ignorant of American history and economics? These people have grown up to run America’s largest corporations. And we are surprised by businesses crumbling around us!

America’s free enterprise system is absolutely dependent on public trust, which is dependent on honesty, value and service. If we fail to pass these virtues on to our children and insist they be honored in daily living, we will lose our nation.

I hope this is as unacceptable to you as it is to me. Wringing our hands isn’t the answer. We must make certain our home life mirrors our values. Then we speak out, not in haughty self-righteousness, but from the heart of one who understands what is at stake.

Living Liberty is the Evergreen Freedom Foundation's monthly newsletter. It provides updates on the issues and projects EFF is currently working on. You will also find commentary on state and sometimes federal government issues.

Living Liberty is available for our members only. Please click here if you would like to become a member.

Contact: Marsha Richards, Communications Director, (360) 956-3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org