Business ethics needed

KATE BRODSKY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

What originally was intended to be a discussion of business ethics and corruption, very quickly entered what the evening's moderator, Rabbi Yosef Wosk, aptly referred to as "business of the world."

"It's very Jewish thing," he pointed out.

Wosk's audience was a group of asorbed listeners who had packed the adult lounge at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC) Jan. 18 for the Philosophers' Café discussion Bad Apples, Bad Systems and Bad Ethics: Understanding Contemporary Business Corruption. The guest speaker was Dr. Mark Wexler, a Simon Fraser University business administration professor of applied ethics. Wexler is regularly invited to speak to public, business and academic audiences and has also served as a consultant to business leaders worldwide.

Speaking of well-known businesses such as Wal-Mart, WorldCom and, most notably, Enron, who had what some might call questionable practices, Wexler began with an interesting observation.

"The recent events that have happened in North America with regards to business corruption - I did some research into that and, of the 78 people who might be punishable for offences in the last go-around for deceivable practices and acts of mal-decency, their average individual home value is worth $14.5 million US," he said. "And the amount of time that they are likely to do in prison is anywhere from two to seven months. The amount of capital that will [accrue] to them as a consequence of their misbehavior is anywhere from 17 to 380 million dollars."

To get his point across, Wexler invited the audience, "Now if I were to say to you (and you were 21 years old) that you might do seven months in prison for getting $20 million how many of you would say 'I wouldn't do that'?"

One audience member eagerly called out, "Not me!" indicating he would gladly do the time in exchange for the payoff. Conversely, another disagreed saying, "No way!"

This split was quickly picked up on by the speaker.

"We live in a time where the best minds of our generation are divided," Wexler said. "We live in a time where even teaching our children what is a hero and what is a villain is very complex."

This brought the participants to the question "Was it simpler in the past?" Many audience members agreed that there is a degree of moral drift, more scandals and even what one man referred to as an "abandoned society" nowadays. Another chimed in with an old joke, "How much is a man worth? As much as he can get," to which Wexler quipped, "As much as he can get away with."

One woman expressed an anxiety that "young people don't have education in civics."

Another man, however, disagreed. He went on to explain that he doesn't want "the civics of the '50s, when a black guy could be lynched in the South, or a Jew couldn't go to medical school, except for the two Jews every year. I don't want those civics."

A short silence fell on the audience but, swiftly, another person broke the silence with a question. "Do we have a democracy in Canada?" he asked. Audience members mumbled "no" and then someone teased, "Have you seen China?" Laughter followed his comment.

Getting back to business, Wexler posed the question, "How many rogues does it take in a room to make that room sick? It takes one.

"Sometimes we have good organizations, good people and very very corrupt institutions," he explained. "Enron was mostly made up of very good, very honorable people – it was made of you and I."

This brought up another question from an audience member, "What can be done?"

Wexler answered that, whether we are living in "the best of times or the worst of times, whether a person is a scientist or a rabbi or a community leader, we are in the act of world-making.

"What's fair may seem like a simple question," he said. "But it's a very difficult one to answer.

"When in Rome, do we [as a Jewish community] do as the Romans? Do I wear my yarmulke or do I take it off? Is there some dominant global thing? You have to have ethics so that you know what you can't do. Blind obedience is fatal."

The next Philosophers' Café will take place Feb 15, 7:30-9:30 p.m., at the JCC. Susan Mendelson, CEO of the Lazy Gourmet, along with rabbis Levy Teitlebaum and Avraham Feigelstock from B.C. Kosher, will discuss the Passion and Politics of Kosher Food.

Call 604-257-5111 or visit www.jfgv.com for more information. Pre-registration is advised as the cafés sell out very quickly.

Kate Brodsky is an entertainment writer living in Vancouver.

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