I enjoyed reading about the ethical considerations we make as individuals applying to work at large corporations with unethical practices. The article emphasized that for every corporation that does unethical work, we can assign blame top down.This would mean that everyone who supported such a corporation regardless of how minimal their role is, can be blamed for the consequences of that corporation’s actions. While this is an extreme view, it raises an important question: when are we actually conytibuing to the problem vs when are we merely powerless cogs in a much larger machine? The article gives us all sorts of examples: “abortion doctors, judges sending inmates to death row, [and] advocates of assisted suicide.” The main takeaway here is the decision for whether or not to work at a corporation with questionable ethics depends on one’s personal moral framework and individual circumstances. There are several factors that come into play when making such a decision:
- Ethical alignment: Does the companies practices mostly align with one’s personal moral values
- Financial necessity: To what extent does one’s financial circumstances necessitate taking on/keeping an unethical position?
- Personal culpability: To what degree does one’s role contribute to or enable the company’s questionable activities?
My main takeaway from this article is that everyone is responsible (to an extent). This means that rather than blaming (or ignoring) the system, we should be aware of our own contributions and take responsibility for our choices and actions, no matter how small they may seem.
