http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/08/prisoners-call-centre-fired-staff
The article above is about a private telemarketer company in Wales, busing in inmates from a nearby prison to work at a call centre for $3 a day. While this is happening, there are “law-abiding” citizens that are put out of work. If you were appointed to run this telemarketer company, and your main goal was to cut down costs, would you hire the “law-abiding” citizen for a $100 a day or the inmate for $3 a day? Would the honest citizen complain because the company is trying to cut down its cost? If you were to hire the inmate, would you feel bad for it? Also, can other companies complain about this practice of hiring inmates? The telemarketer company is not receiving any unfair advantage compared to other companies because this is a perfectly legal situation and they are letting the world know, not trying to hide it.
In your opinion do believe that this telemarketer company is justified in hiring inmates?
Firms will do whatever they can to maximize profit. In this case, a labor wage of $3 versus $100 is quite a large margin. From an economic standpoint, the company has every right to hire the inmates and it would be silly of them not to.
However, from an ethical standpoint, honest and law-abiding citizens are losing their jobs with the decision of hiring inmates. Criminals are acquiring jobs that normally would have gone to deserving members of free society. The firm must then make a decision for which matters most – profit or ethics. The firm would be praised for making the right “social decision” of letting honest people keep their jobs; however this decision comes at a great loss of profit.