Dr. Sulekh Chand Jain
I have lived in the West for the last forty-Eight plus years and for a long time, I thought that the West had very high moralistic and ethical values, but recently I have come to the conclusion that no national, ethnic, or religious group has a monopoly on ethics. There are bad apples everywhere. The recent economic meltdowns and examples of swindling, cheating, sky-high greed, and bonuses, and the twisting and distorting of truth by the so-called rich and famous in the West, and particularly in the US, leads me to believe that people are same everywhere and there is no less corruption (in fact it is many times more) in the USA than in any country of the world.
In India, the corruption is practically at every level of society but it is modest whereas in the US it is of monumental proportion and is done by the rich and super rich, the famous, powerful, educated and religious (but not moral) people. Examples include: ENRON, Bernie Madoff, Sanford, Bankers, Wall Street tycoons and bandits, insurance company executives, drug companies, security and investment traders, auditors, accountants, lawyers, advertising executives, MBAs (they have recently acquired the nickname of “master of the universe” rather than “master of business administration”), spin doctors and loan sharks scam artists. All have had and are still having a field day in looting and cheating the poor, ethical, and unsuspecting ordinary folks. One only has to pay attention to some of the news items in the media to get just a glimpse of the con games these sophisticated thieves play every day. Their modi operandi are extremely sophisticated.
In the United States, many of the professional schools, such as schools of business, law, accounting, and advertising turn out graduates (some and not all) with unlimited and sky-high greed and unethical behaviors. The only thing they consider is how to distort, warp, discolor, or hide truth, connive, and cheat people (investors and customers) and line their pockets with unlimited wealth. I honestly feel that in the US, if anyone ever creates a team consisting of MBAs, accountants, lawyers, and advertisers, one would have created the biggest monster imaginable. I blame part of this malaise rests with some of the professional schools for turning out such lousy products that do so much damage to the society.
Jains in India run many Business Schools to train MBAs and accountants. I have visited a few of them but in spite of my many pleas, they don’t offer courses in Business Ethics. What a pity for we Jains and keepers of ahimsa!
The truth is that if a bank robber makes off with millions of dollars, he can expect the full force of the law. So why should big corporations and swindlers be able to evade justice if caught engaging in corruption or other economic crimes?
The erosion of trust in business in North America has been little short of catastrophic in recent years. A professor recently analyzed some of the world’s big corporations and argued that they possess all of the following attributes: grandiosity, manipulativeness, and the inability to feel remorse. They present themselves in ways that are appealing but deceptive. In a news report appearing in Financial Times dated December 15, 2010, India’s Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh accused Indian business leaders of having an “ethical deficit.”
I read in the Waterloo, Iowa Courier dated July 25th, 2011, an article noting that the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act by US Congress in 1999 was the catalyst and continuing fuel that scorched the US economy. Wall Street’s naked greed, its perverted honesty, unspeakable hubris, and contemptuous management vacuumed trillions of dollars from the pockets of 300 million Americans. Wall Street’s new billionaire and trillionaire banksters should be the candidates for federal prison, not little Martha Stewart who was jailed in 2004 for making $200,000 on inside information. Wall Street has no more conscience than a fox in a poultry farm. But that’s the immutable nature of these people.
In an April 2010 article in Rolling Stone Magazine, Matt Taibbi compared Goldman Sachs to a “great vampire squid, wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells of money,” an apt description that also applies to Bank of America, JP Morgan, and Citigroup. Allowing these Wall Street banks to continue feeding their greed is destroying our democracies, our economies, our retirement plans and our freedoms. I think that when greed becomes the sole driving force, then all boundaries of geography, religions, caste, culture, and creed disappear. I hope my Jain community remains vigilant to avoid succumbing to the greed.
Corruption is the greatest act of himsa.
