Today, i was just thinking about the topic of business ethics, and about what it truly meant to be an “ethical business”. I began to talk about this topic to some friends of mine. We came up with the conclusion together that an ethical business was one that treated it workers very well with respect and dignity, union for it workers, pay’s all workers at least minimum wage, and did not use questionable labour such as child labour and illegal immigrants.
After talking about this for awhile, i began to think about these things. And most of these made sense, but as i began to think about others, i began to become confused. I totally agree that is is ethical to not sue child labour or to treat your workers fairly and with respect, but one thing that confuses me is how having a unionized labour force and minimum wage is considered ethical. Economically speaking, the introduction of these institutions only really causes unemployment, higher costs to producers, higher costs to consumers, and less goods available. The only ones benefitting are the ones who originally hold the jobs. The rest suffer. So how are those things ethical? You tell me.