Monday, January 18, 2010

Aristotle In The News

It seems to be that in our current economic world, the public has become obsessed with the idea of getting ahead and acquiring money. We seem to have a distorted idea that money is necessary and essential for our well-being, and that the more money we have the better off we are. So then this raises the question of the ethical aspects in the means through which corporations, and also individuals, are making money.
Aristotle mentions that money should be used as a means and not as an end, which directly relates to an article found on The Guardian's website titled "Uganda oil contracts give little cause for optimism", written by Taimor Lay. The article speaks about the oil company's argument that their presence in Uganda will turn the country's economy around because of the large revenue that would come in. On the other hand, the article also mentions that the deals being presented by the oil companies are "designed for profit, not development..." (Lay). This contradicts Aristotle's idea of money, because these companies are aiming to simply profit and keep bringing in money at any cost, which Aristotle would say distorts and perverses the true value of money. This meaning, that these corporations and industries are willing to go to any extent to profit, even when this means that there will be harm in extracting the natural resources in the region and harming the population in the country. So, should these industries and corporations have the right to harm the overall environment and population of the country simply for their own gains?
Furthermore, Aristotle mentions that the art of acquisition should, in essence, be limited and not limitless. So, having said that, the article also contradicts Aristotle's beliefs about the limits of acquiring wealth because it mentions that "as the oil price rises, investors will make a higher and unlimited profit, taking close to one quarter of oil revenues, whether each barrel is fetching $70 or $200" (Lay). Therefore, Aristotle would say that this perverses our want to make money, because there are no limits nor boundries.
So, knowing that these oil companies will be ignoring the environmental protective measures needed, and simply are concerned with making profit, I ask, when is it safe to say that enough is enough? Since Aristotle also mentions that we should only acquire what is needed to live well, is there ever such a limit for corporations, and in particular oil companies?