Wal-Mart--Are they doing anything unethical Essay

Wal-Mart--Are they doing anything unethical - Essay Example Business ethics should be followed or consequences will result which can be detrimental to all. Machan (2003) lists the meaning of business ethics as "a discipline specializing in the examination of answers to the questions 'How should I act' or 'What standards ought I use to guide my conduct'...Business ethics assumes commerce and business are, as a rule, morally proper." In the quest to maximize profits, some businesses do not act in an ethical manner. It is an ever-increasing problem as business acquire more profits, they tend to behave in an unethical manner. However, a business can still maximize profits, This essay shall focus on small businesses in regards to ethics. Small businesses are more flexible and if they adopt innovative methods and technology, they can increase growth can increase growth capacity (which leads to more jobs), better profitability, and more purchasing power. However, businesses tend to act in ways that are not moral and are unethical in their pursuit to maximize profits. In the beginning, Sam Walton's first Wal-Mart was funded 95% by his own money. Many believe that small businesses that have grown tremendously such as Wal-Mart behaved unethically in order to get where they are. Today the company has grown to 1.3 million worldwide associates and fifteen countries are home to the wholesale clubs. (The Wal-Mart Story, n.d.). They tell of how Wal-Mart has created millions of jobs. A post by Average Joe (2006) states that "Wal-Mart pays billions and billions of dollars in Federal Taxes every year and is one of the only companies in the US to pay the 35% corporate tax rate. They are one of the only companies left in America that doesn't cheat the U.S. government!" Regardless of the job increases and tax payments, many support John's (2004) opinion, "Wal-Mart has destroyed communities in thousands of small towns across America. Check out any small town main street and all you see is boarded up shops and dead, lifeless, streetsnow its coming to Europe and doing the same thing because for every mom and pop store that's thrown on the scrap heap other local jobs are lost as well." Last Name 3 And although Wal-Mart may be creating jobs while it is destroying jobs, the more Wal-mart lowers its prices, more customer loyalty is created. This leads to lower rates of pay in other countries such as China in order to justify for the lower prices. A corporation such as Wal-Mart can pressure to shut down cheap warehouses in third world countries such as Mexico because their workers were making too much. As corporations get bigger especially as huge as Wal-Mart has become, they "are in positions of power that allow them to do greater damage to others when they act immorally or unethically or socially irresponsibly" as Why Bother With Ethics (n.d.), reports. One blogger Eli (2005) posts, "Do you know where all of those cheap products are being producedThose products were OUTSOURCED taking THOUSANDS of jobs