Albert Carr on Business Ethics

Paper Summary:

The paper raises questions about Carr's thesis that it is intrinsic in the business world to stretch the truth and sometimes mislead buyers. Carr argues that there is an agreement among people in business that bluffing is accepted as part of the price of doing business and so cannot be considered lying. The writer explores this topic of how business ethics in advertising can remain profitable but also ethical.

From the Paper:

"Carr presents his thesis in the form of an indirect argument, with his businessman friend serving to raise objections to which Carr provides answers. Carr says that the ethics of business are game ethics rather than religious ones, and his friend is not convinced, noting that he and his fellow business people pride themselves on their ethics, are loyal to customers and fair to suppliers, and otherwise completely ethical in their dealings. Carr assumes, however, that this man is inadvertently agreeing with him by saying he only lives up to the ethical standards of the business game, and he says this based on the fact that this same man "was allowing one of his products to be advertised in a way that made it sound a great deal better than it actually was" (Carr 244). Another product produced by his company had a "built-in obsolescence" so customers would have to repurchase sooner than they might like."

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