White Collar Crime and Elon Musk

Discussion and Responses

1a

I think the most relevant area in a Code of Ethics today is that regarding respect for persons and not engaging in harassment. Since the #MeToo Movement began, a lot of focus has been on making sure people are not abusing their positions to harass others. People should be able to go to work without having to worry about that sort of thing, and yet it still happens. So I would say that is where the most important principle is to be found today.

1b

Safety in the workplace is crucial. Long ago workplaces were very unsafe because there were no regulations in place. Today, workplaces are overseen by OSHA and must keep up with industry standards. And yet as you point out workplaces are unsafe in other ways—such as in social ways, where harassment gets a free pass it seems. This is largely a cultural area that needs to be addressed. Perhaps a new federal agency will emerge that will focus on this the way OSHA focuses on workplace safety issues.

1c

Professionalism is certainly an important aspect of a Code of Ethics, especially for leaders. Companies like Enron and Tesla have come under fire or collapsed completely because of a lack of professional conduct on the part of the heads of the businesses. Enron is a perfect case in point. Tesla’s Musk is potentially another. But I agree completely that good interpersonal relationships are crucial to creating an appealing workplace environment where job satisfaction is high.

2a

I think it is the case that business crimes are on the rise because we have a culture in which white collar crimes go ignored or unpunished. I would even go so far as to say that many businesses are immersed in a culture of white collar crime. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk for instance committed blatant securities fraud when he Tweeted that he was taking Tesla private at $420 a share. It was a lie, and the SEC slapped his wrist with a $20 million fine and nothing more. Now he is facing a civil suit for it from shareholders and short sellers, but when someone like this can get away with such blatant fraud it sends a message to others that they should try the same. Just look at what the CEO of Nikola tried to get away with—and I think he was clearly following in Musk’s footsteps.

2b

Technology is certainly part of it, but I think culture is to blame too. There is a culture that dominates in which people want to get rich quick. There is no consensus view on ethical principles. Everyone has become an ethical egoist—and that is where problems arise.

2c

Technology may make it easier for people to commit crimes—but they are committing crimes because they have made it easy for themselves, morally speaking. The culture of today does not promote virtue ethics. It promotes ethical egoism, which is essentially the philosophical justification for self-centeredness. That is why I think more business crimes are happening now.

3a

Kiosks help me in becoming a digital citizen because I don’t have to wait on others to place an order or register; I can do it all at the kiosk quickly and efficiently. Enterprise computing is helpful in an IT sense in that it gives workers in an organization all the computing tools they need to share, store, retrieve, and use data. Natural language processing is helpful because it allows people to interact with computers simply by speaking to them. Robotics is a helpful subfield because it makes processes easier—from assembly lines to package sorting in warehouses like at Amazon. Virtual reality is helpful because it can be used in training (as in aviation classes) and really in any walk of life. It can also be used for recreational purposes, which is how I would use it.