wall street 
Fri Oct 07, 2011 at 12:30:24 PM EDT
|
|
At PJA & JFSJ, we’re thrilled to see the issues we talk about every day – the need for good jobs, affordable housing and fair lending practices – appear on sign after sign calling for an end to the inequality and poverty that prevent millions of Americans from living lives of dignity. Many of us have found this call to action in our Judaism. PJA & JFSJ was formed so that we would have a way to act together as Jews to address inequality in our nation. Today, though, a critical mass of Americans nationwide are hearing the call, and feeling the pain of need and want firsthand. Before the recession, the number of individuals and families homeless or living in poverty was unacceptable. Today those numbers have skyrocketed – along with the unemployment rate – while growing ranks of working Americans can no longer afford to feed their families. It’s no surprise that a lot of folks are moved to act – to demand change and articulate a vision for our future. It’s no surprise that Americans want to reclaim the values of fairness and opportunity that our nation has historically stood for. For me, it’s meaningful that so many people who have sat on the sidelines feel invested in America’s future again. For me, it’s a hopeful moment when the people demanding change pictured on Page One aren’t representing the Tea Party, they’re folks who want help for all Americans – the 99 percent. Most of all, it’s hopeful to see a call again for the common good. To see a sense of community. Many of us went down to Wall Street this week to stand with Occupy Wall Street. The call for structural change is being heard around the nation. Americans are uniting to call for solutions to the inequality that’s dividing and wounding our nation. This isn’t about being a revolutionary- it’s a call for common sense measures for rebuilding and sustaining our country to meet the needs of all its people. One of the voices you don’t want to miss in this conversation is Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, PJA & JFSJ board member and professor of Rabbinic literature at the Ziegler School for Rabbinic Studies of the American Jewish University. In his post on Occupy Wall Street, he offers a Jewish perspective on what it means to be part of a community of obligation.
|
|
Discuss
:: (1
Comments)
|
|
Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 10:51:01 AM EDT
|
The Hippocratic Oath is often rendered in modern parlance as “do no harm,” with little recognition that it also goes on to trash physician-assisted suicide and abortion. It also advocates celibacy. So it’s safe to say the Hippocratic Oath isn’t entirely sound, though the basic principle is a good one. That would be why medical schools continue to administer some form of the oath (often sans anti-abortion, pro-celibacy tidbits).
But aside from the obvious power wielded by medical professionals, why not have a similar oath for other professions? In the wake of Wall Street’s meltdown, shouldn’t MBA’s also have to recite an oath to do no harm — or at least be a little less greedy at the expense of lower-order workers?
That is the thinking behind the MBA Oath, published in May by a group of Harvard Business School students. I learned of this thanks to recent MBA graduate Elana Berkowitz, writing in the across-the-pond Guardian newspaper. The oath-takers pledge themselves to “act with utmost integrity and pursue [their] work in an ethical manner,” along with other good things. It starts out by emphasizing the purpose of business professionals is “to serve the greater good by bringing people and resources together to create value that no single individual can create alone.”
Fine language, I suppose, and it’s certainly a better graduation tradition than the old one — waving $20 bills about. Crassness has never been a bad business strategy in this country, apparently. But count me as a cynic, at least of the value of the oath in and of itself. The Hippocratic Oath is all good and dandy, but I wonder what it would accomplish in a world without malpractice lawsuits and the FDA. On the business side of medicine, health insurers have been allowed to do considerable harm in large part because of government-sanctioned insulation from the full force and effect of lawsuits.
Will MBA’s be any more motivated by this oath in the absence of a vigorous government regulatory structure? I doubt it. As a Jew, I’ve grown to appreciate the value of communal guilt. It’s the difference, they say, between us and Catholics. They guilt themselves individually. We guilt each other. Theirs may be more efficient, but ours is better at enforcing good behavior in the community. The same, I think, is true in the case of policing bad business behavior.
So let them take this oath. It’s a fine bit of PR and probably will help a few here and there to feel good about their chosen profession. But my guess is the largesse afforded MBA’s when the paychecks are cut is more a motivating factor. A counter-balance with as much force on the bottom-line seems necessary, and that’s a renewed appreciation for the necessity of regulation.
P.S. Elana Berkowitz, to her credit, made these points as well. I don’t want to make it sound like she was just cheerleading the MBA Oath. I’m a little wary, though, of her hope for a “cultural shift within the business community.” Wary, but hopeful, especially if the research she cited by MIT behavioural economist Dan Ariely holds water.
|
|
Discuss
:: (4
Comments)
|
|
|
|
|
| User Blox 1 |
|
- Put stuff here
|
| Barack Obama |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| RSS Feed Links |
Subscribe to JSpot in a feed reader!
Subscribe to JSPOT by Email!
|
|
| User Blox 4 |
|
- Put stuff here
|
|
