"Why business and ethics go together: a short answer”
Thomas I. White, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Ethics and Business

When cynics argue that "business ethics" is an oxymoron, they seem to be saying either that it's impossible for individuals or companies to make money by behaving ethically or, at the very least, that being unethical will let you make more money than being honest will.

However, if being unethical is an essential part of business, then “business” and “organized crime” differ, as philosophers like to put it, only in "degree" not in "kind." The major differences between business and organized crime, then, would be the product lines and how heavy-handed people were in dealing with each other. Yet both would be based on the idea that we’re all just grist for everyone else’s mill, and this would make business a fundamentally anti-social, predatory institution in society.

At the same time, understanding business this way flies in the face of the fundamental values of a democratic society. It is inconceivable that a majority of people would ever freely endorse the idea that dishonesty, manipulation and taking advantage of other people were acceptable, fundamental traits of the basic mechanism by which their society made and distributed essential goods and services.