The Ethics of Conserving Depletable Resources

The Ethics of Conserving Depletable Resources

     Conservation refers to the saving or rationing of natural resources for later uses. Conservation, therefore, looks primarily to the future: to the need to limit consumption now to have resources available for tomorrow (Velasquez, 2012). With a big population worldwide, it is very difficult to prevent people from depleting our resources. Time goes so fast and everyone should need to find ways in order to survive everyday living. Most of us tend to ignore the proper use of our resources and how we should conserve it for future generations. The children that our born everyday also has the right for those resources which are only limited so it is just the right thing to be responsible for them. Sustainable development is one way to give justice for our environment and for future generations. Sustainability is the capacity something has to continue to function in the future. Some examples are solar energy, crop rotation, water fixtures, using organic materials like bamboo cloth and other things that stimulate sustainability.

     Resource depletion occurs when all of the natural resources in an area, both renewable and non-renewable have been exhausted. Human beings currently use resources far more quickly than they can be replenished. A good example of resource depletion is the growing use of petroleum, which is a finite resource which takes millions of years to create. At the rate we are using up petroleum we could be facing depletion within the next five generations. With growing population and land degradation we are also facing a situation where the Earth can no longer feed the vast amount of people on the planet (SuperGreenMe, 2008).

If we are not responsible in conserving our resources then the future generations will suffer. If our resources are continuously abused, the time will come when there would be nothing left. I imagine our planet being dark and gray, people will suffer. We should encourage others to be innovators in order to promote sustainable development. We should expand the idea of how our resources should be put in greater use and be conserved at the same time.

Most people don’t care about what happens next, as long as they have benefited from a certain resource. Most companies would not even hesitate to make the best profit out of those resources regardless of the damage that could be done towards our planet and for future generations. Most of us are selfish and self-centred, the way that we don’t care about what others may feel or think from our actions. For too many communities, the costs of depleting resources are far greater than the benefits. The damage that is recklessly accumulated everyday would hurt our environment where the future generations have no idea how they would survive in experiencing the worst from depleted resources. It fuels tragic civil war among the countries, that leads to higher crime rates, facilitating the spread of disease, and threatens indigenous cultures - all while failing to lift local communities out of poverty. Each of us is responsible in contributing for the need of a successful community. As an individual, we could be able to support human lives by doing simple things in order to maintain our resources. Together we can save lives and prevent that emptiness in our planet.

Ethical Principles in Business: The Ugly Side of Networking

            During my college days, I’ve been invited with one of my closest friend in school to attend a business presentation –they call it “networking”. He was very persistent so I decided to agree and then he took me to the venue along with the other people that he invited. I was one of the three guests that he invited. There was a lot of people in the room chatting, they were excited and we were clueless of what we were doing there. My friend did not disclose things in detail of what was going to be discussed or the main purpose of the program –he just said that it was a “business opportunity”. I’ve noticed that people there who invited their guests kept on saying the same thing, that it is a one chance of a lifetime for this “business opportunity.” After a while, the speaker of the program came in. My first impression when I saw the speaker was that he was trying so hard to have that successful image of his in order to impress people specially the first time guests like me. His entrance was cheered with a synchronized applause from its members and they were in full support laughing from every joke that he made and agrees to every word he says from his script like he had a second voice from a chorale. The speaker and its members kept on bragging about the money that they earned from their business group which they are promoting in order for us to join. They bragged about the cars that they’ve bought houses that they’ve acquired and other things including luxury. The speaker then turned out to be a God that he made himself believable of all of his accomplishments and success through networking. What is supposed to be an inspirational talk turned out to be the biggest joke that I have ever heard. He was not that convincing and I pity those who believed in his bag of lies. I just looked at him speak like a false prophet with his superstitions that he claims to play fairly with their exclusive networking group.

            They claim that they operate legally and that their business is registered in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It is obvious that what they are doing is misleading the people to its business products when the real intent of the whole networking and recruitment turns out to be a pyramid scam. Those people are scammers pretending to sell a product that is licensed from SEC but the real operation of the business is not the product itself but networking.

There are ethical principles of business; there are factors that we consider to be ethical in business. One of it is utilitarianism which is based on overall consequences of our acts –in this case it’s the networking scam. This leads us to the following questions:

Who benefit from the act?  

Obviously, those who are on top of the network would benefit the most from this act. The new ones are new pawns that were supposed to be us during that time.

Who are burdened?

The new recruits would be burdened. When I got there I immediately figured out that what everybody’s saying are quite unrealistic and that it’s too good to be true. I knew that I was wasting my time there and I’ve made a fool out of myself going out there and listen to a false businessman who clearly takes advantage of other people’s ignorance. With so much promise of success, there are a large percentage of new people that could fall victim to their scam. I am not one of those who will fall into their trap but I’m pretty sure a lot would be involved because they were blinded by such promises.

Does the act maximize the total net benefit to everyone concerned (stakeholders)?

The only one that would benefit is those on the top of the network. It is like a food chain and we let ourselves be eaten by predators by falling victim and joining their group.

The other factor that I would like to consider with this topic is the ethics of care. The following are the questions raised involving ethics of care:

Does the act show proper care to people we have special relationships with?

            Given this deceitful circumstances, it seems like caring doesn’t exist. For instance, my friend didn’t care what he was risking. He risked our friendship, my trust and his reputation. From that day on I’ve encountered people who were in networking and how it ruined their relationships with their families, friends, co-workers and other people who are close to them. It narrowed their world that shattered opportunities and dreams that is why it took them some time to recover for making one of the biggest mistakes in their lives –that thing called “business opportunity”.

            Will it earn the trust of people we value?

            Trust plays the biggest issue here in this topic. When trust is ruined, it is difficult to fix or on some circumstances it is permanently ruined. This puts too much risk in trust from people we value most because this is purely a deception, ambiguous and misleading.

            As individuals we become desperate to do the wrong things in life in order to survive or find meaning for ourselves. We become selfish and we risk the trust of those people we value the most because we are pressured to make a living. Some of us tend to deny the right path to follow and make room for opportunity by making shortcuts even though we are fully aware of the consequences that our reckless decisions might harm others that we value. We just don’t value those who are close to us but we should also value the society as a whole. Some people make bad choices because of desperation and pressure and bad things happen. Forgiveness would always give them new hope and strength to realize that the world hadn’t ended.

I end this blog with a quote from Mark Twain that says “Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."

Moral Responsibility and Blame: Insider Trading

      “Greed is the root of all evil” was the famous line from the movie Wall Street.  Investors and traders like me have the same goal of generating profits from stocks through price appreciation and dividends. We do our research daily and read market sentiments that would serve as a basis for our judgements. Most of us trade fairly in compliance with the rules and regulations that are set with the intent of obtaining a transparent market. Having transparency would increase investor confidence that encourages investors to invest within the market. There are ways in trading that we should practice in order to be morally responsible however, not all of us play fair in the marketplace. There are a lot of things that we are not allowed to do but others practice it because they know that they could get away with it. One of the most unethical practices that are very famous in the stock market is “insider trading”. Insider trading is defined as buying or selling a stock on the basis of information that has not been made public and is supposed to remain confidential. The one who practice this unfair act is called an “insider”. The Philippine Stock Exchange has its own set of rules and also in compliance with the rules and regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Even though they implement measures in preventing such acts there are still some who gets away with it.

     Moral responsibility has three factors which are causality, knowledge, and freedom. It’s important to understand these three conditions well enough to be able to judge on your own whether a party was morally responsible for something (Velasquez, 2012).

CAUSALITY

     Causality is the relation between cause and effect. The person must either cause the injury or wrong or else must fail to prevent it when he or she could and should have done so (Velasquez, 2012). Insider trading is one issue that is very hard to prove. It will need a lot of evidence to prove someone that he is guilty. With my entire career in the Philippine stock market I don’t remember anyone including historical records that was proven guilty and was sentenced because of insider trading. There were some who were suspended and fined because of securities fraud but not insider trading in particular. Many have practiced it and yet they just get away with it every time. Under the causality rule, it is very clear that the insider intentionally caused the injury that reduces the effectiveness of the transparent market. Going into the mind of the insider, I could say that he wouldn’t mind if what he’s doing is ethical or not as long as he has the opportunity to generate profit through inside information. An insider could also do something to prevent it by not disseminating the information or not making the trade unless it’s disclosed. It is the right thing to do but in reality it never happens and those who intends to practice and obey the rule on insider trading would only turn out to be a joke. Although the higher ups have the difficulty in detaining those who are guilty, one should always be morally responsible for any foreseen work injuries that could be prevented.

KNOWLEDGE

     Knowledge is the second requirement for moral responsibility. The person must know what he or she is doing (Velasquez, 2012). An insider clearly has knowledge of confidential information and should keep it confidential and not do such actions within the information. An insider could possibly be removed from moral responsibility if it fails to meet the obligation of rules that he or she is genuinely ignorant. In this case, if an individual practiced insider trading but was not aware that it was prohibited then he or she may be excused. It clearly doesn’t make any sense to excuse someone that practices insider trading just because he wasn’t aware of such rules. We are responsible for our ignorance and for its wrongful or injurious consequences (Velasquez, 2012).

FREEDOM

     The third requirement for moral responsibility is that the person must act of his or her own free will (Velasquez, 2012). We have the freedom to trade and we have the freedom to do as we like as humans but there are always limitations. It is common sense to know what is right and wrong that we should not abuse the power of free will. Insiders have their own free will that does not hesitate with their wrongdoings. Motivated by greed, insiders are unstoppable. Personal interest of insiders may seem to be a small issue but in a bigger picture it is a serious issue that should be dealt with. It makes a market unhealthy having insiders. As human beings we should be morally responsible in our free will by being obedient to the rules and regulation and develop self-discipline. We can control ourselves and avoid wrongdoings if our judgments are not clouded.

     Money makes us different, it changes our character. The way we speak, the way we react changes time after time. Our moral responsibilities as an individual towards the society diminish when we are blinded with power and monetary value. We let ourselves be part of a faction that contributes into damaging the society. Rationalizations and excuses define our true nature of escaping responsibility. A moral responsibility that is ours to take in hand but most of us ignore it and choose to agree with evil thoughts. We face the true enemy within our wrongdoings and evil thoughts, we define ourselves based on our judgments and actions –the only enemy that we need to endure is ourselves.

Life and Money Lessons by Suze Orman

     On one of our class sessions, we had the chance to watch a film and the topic was about Laws of Money and Life Lessons by Suze Orman. It was my first time to watch her and she got my attention because I was amazed on how she explained her topic on stage. Suze Orman is such a powerful and inspirational speaker where she made a lot of sense and it was an impressive talk that was an hour worth watching. She discussed the five laws about money where I think that all of us can relate to. I will enumerate the five laws and share my thoughts and opinions into each law based on my own experience and perception.

Law # 1 – Truth creates money, lies destroy it

     In this law, she points out that most of us don’t have the courage financially to tell the truth. She cited an example of a company like ENRON where they lied of what the company’s real worth is and what they really did with the money or the investments that they’ve had from their investors. Back then, ENRON Company’s stock price skyrocketed and was making huge investments from investors but they were hiding the truth from the public all along –the truth that they’re suffering losses and not disclosing it to the public for personal gain. In the end the truth will always prevail and in their case, everyone found out about what really happened which damaged not just their reputation but also to the individuals who invested and believed their lies.

     Financially speaking, lies could burn us alive and our money with it. ENRON was one example in a bigger picture but looking into individuals, most of us have this guilt in us –not being financially honest within ourselves. Most of us have that denial and pretension that we could live our daily lives more than what we have in our pockets. It is made possible especially nowadays where credit cards and loans can be easily obtained by an individual. We enjoy the benefit of it without noticing that with such credit in our hands we could just literally be living our daily lives in a lie. I have been always tempted to purchase different kinds of things that are beyond my financial capacity. I’ve made mistakes and I keep on learning from it. I believe that it’s all about discipline of how you handle yourself financially. I believe that is very important to know your place or status of where you should be and let the truth have its day.

Law # 2 –Look at what you have and not what you’ve had

     “We don’t need to look past just to get what we need” is always one thing that I keep on telling myself every time. I am not perfect; there are times when I make the same mistakes because I just can’t get over the past.  Suze Orman mentioned about the depression that an investor encounters when he suffers from a loss. I am a stock trader in the stock market and I also have my own personal investments in stocks. I know how it feels to suffer from a loss and at the same time I know how others feel about it  because I encounter it from clients whenever there’s a bearish market. Being the investor, we have choices to make. Internal conflict kicks in when prices turn sour, so we should quickly assess if we should buy the same investment? If we should shift to another stock or we could just do nothing about it. As Suze Orman mentioned, doing nothing is also an option. We can’t always have the market or our investments are in our favour. I believe that the best thing that we could learn and figure out early in life is having the strength to move on. The faster we can move on, the more options and opportunity we could get in life which is very important. We should value time and get over with feelings as fast as we can, to quote from a famous saying “time is gold”.

Law # 3 –You have to do what’s right for you before you do what’s right for your money

     We just have to figure out what’s right for us and managing our own finances effectively will follow. When I was studying in college I didn’t have the discipline to save money. I’ve only appreciated the concept of it in when I had a job and realize how difficult it is to earn money. We could do things with money, we can either spend it in a good way or in a bad way otherwise we put it aside for savings. Good spending is obviously purchasing things that are only necessary or investing within the calculated amount of my purchasing power. Bad spending is just pure recklessness, carelessness and unmanageability which I am guilty of even as of now. I think that I’m still finding the balance to be in the right mind to assess my financial life and value each peso as if it was my last one. Self discipline and self control plays a large part in this law which would bring me and to others closer to our goals.  

            Law # 4 –You must first invest in the known before the unknown

     Investments are very attractive, all of us want to earn money for ourselves but we need to pick wisely and investigate thoroughly when investing. There are a lot of investment varieties to choose from, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, life insurance etc. Being in the stock market industry, generally these are the “known” investments. There are a lot of victims of “unknown” investments. These are scams where they market their investments promising very high returns which just seem too good to be true. These institutions or companies raise a lot of ethical questions of how they operate their businesses. Specifically I am talking about the “networking” otherwise known as the “pyramid scam” that has already been making fools out of many people time after time. They register their business by to sell some products and having a legal permit to operate but the product itself is not the main business that they do –it’s networking or pyramid scam. This is one type of fake investment and is an example of the “unknown”. I think that one should be mentally prepared before entering such an investment. One should educate himself, attend trainings and seminars which talks about real investments like stocks or bonds and investigate further before making such an investment. One could look at the financial statements of a certain company that is approved by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) preferably companies that already has a 3 year track record. Having a 3 year record shows the true fundamentals, nature of business and the cash flow that the company generates from it. Investment is a must but we should always think smart in everything that we do specially on investing.

Law # 5 –You must always remember that money has no power of its own

     Suze Orman defined this law saying that money will never define who you are which means that you will be the one who will define what you do with your money. This takes me back to law # 3 which states that you should do first what’s right for you before you do what’s right for your money. Doing the right things, making the best efforts to make the right choices could give us the power to manage our money effectively. Suze also mentioned that others won’t do anything because of the fear of making the wrong move. Well there’s always a risk/reward ratio for everything, the higher the risk the higher the return. We must know ourselves better than anyone else in order to figure out our risk appetite. We should evaluate how far would we go for spending for an investment, let’s say stocks for instance. A basic example is giving a certain percentage of how can far you can tolerate a gain or loss. Let’s say we set the limit of 10% in a stock loss, we sell the stock to cut loss so we still have a 90% to fund another stock or investment of your choice. On the other hand we realize a profit of 10% and sell the stock to realize a gain because it is not guaranteed that it would stay that way, it might fall back again to your break-even point o worse is it declines further than the purchase price.

     We encounter these laws and lessons in our everyday lives. Money has a lot to do in our everyday survival but it’s not the only thing that has value in this life. There are things money can’t buy and those things are priceless. Our nature, the environment, the earth, the universe and every precious moment that happens through time which does not involve money are things that we should further notice and appreciate in life. The air that we breathe, the stars that we gaze upon, the sunlight that gives life to our planet and the warmth of love are some of the things I value more than money itself.

Work and Life Balance of a Young Professional

      I am 27 years old and I consider myself as a young adult. Sometimes it gets me confused why at this stage in life –time moves very fast. Every Monday I immerse myself into the corporate world to begin my week and do my job. It became a routine until Friday comes. On a Friday night I clock out and get out of work and get excited for the weekend just like everybody else. As I go along the way home, there are moments when I stop there in the crowd and look around. I look at strangers within the range of my age and ask myself “Where are they going? Where are we going?”

     Here we are, young and aspiring, determined and obsessed with a dream. I thought I’ve had it all figured out by having a job, clocking in and out on weekdays and spend much of the weekends on family or friends. Weekends are all about leisure and amusement mostly having the regular routine from work on weekdays gives us a reason to escape and forget work for a while. There is this thing called work-life balance. I would evaluate myself within the matrix below which represents the work-life balance matrix.

    The matrix itself is not linear; most people especially young adults like me are all over the place within the matrix–it also varies depending on the day. If I could put myself inside the matrix and describe myself in general as of now the two closest combinations would be job/amusement and career/achievement.

     Job is obviously the primary source of living. Some have extra income on the side whether it’s a business or an investment. Most people are fortunate to have that opportunity to earn aside from basic salary from a regular job. Most employees especially here in our country are depending on the monthly salary which is the only source for survival. In my entire working career, I have experienced the difficulty of just surviving through the basic salary that is provided by the employer. It is a very limited amount just enough to eat and live throughout the day and sometimes it’s not just enough. Without much of purchasing power, life is limited to the fewest of options. So we became desperate, we became hungry not just for food but also for opportunity. It is that helpless feeling of letting time pass by and just let go of things that makes us feel light or happy because we are required to perform. It would affect my income if I don’t do my job obviously.

     As an entry level when I first got my job, I thought I was free from everything; I thought I could be independent and support myself all the way. I was wrong, as most elder people say “you will never know until you get there”. So I got there and instead of feeling the freedom by finishing college, I’ve felt the opposite. The first few months I knew that we were prisoners of the system. Instead of believing that we are free, it was the other way around. So far I have been from one company to another. I’ve felt that if I leave, things might be different and hopes could be more realistic so I weighed my options. It was the same, just the same thing that I’ve ever done since day one except for the fact that slowly my salary gets higher every time I transfer but with just very few adjustments. I’ve realized that it wasn’t the money that was important, it was the experience. I’ve learned a lot from the stock market and somehow I’ve mastered my craft as a floor trader. It is a very useful experience where I’ve got the chance to appreciate the economy as a whole. From there I got stuck, and realized that I need something more to reach my full potential. Otherwise I’d just get stuck in this comfort zone also known as prison. It’s a trap; it’s a rat race on a daily routine that I could never get out of if I don’t consider other options or risks.

     It all boils down to finding alternatives like taking up graduate studies, thinking about making my own business, considering investments like stocks or mutual funds, and the most reckless choice to think about which is not commendable is gambling. Win or lose, do or die, it’s just a losing game for the desperate. This all pretty much explain the job, career and achievement that makes us whole, that defines who we are and the current reason why we exist.

   I believe that after these three important cycles are fully or partially realized then the amusement part comes in. Why do we long for such an amusement? Why do we need to escape? As described in the matrix. Obviously it serves as a balance from the stressful and crazy life in developing a career. Instead of being the moment when we rediscover ourselves, thinking about who we ought to be, leisure is “the moment when amusements succeed to the maximum in making [us] . . . forget” (Jacques Ellul). It makes us forget who we are for a while, to escape, travel, and run or do something else that is not a part of the job. Just let loose, relax and feel life under the sun. For a moment we could discover greater things beyond our borders. We could feel human and not as a robot who is required to perform like equipment or a machine. It is doing something without duty and as others would see it, it could be without meaning. For individuals like us, other activities such as climbing above the mountains, travelling around the world, playing the sports we love or to simply find time with our loved ones could give such meaningful experience in our lives that never fail in bringing us the happiness and feeling of contentment. We get the joy of rediscovering ourselves every time we escape and sometimes we just want to get lost and be away from a stressful day job in the city. Leisure and amusement is the best escape but we need to work hard for it and we should always be at our best in doing our jobs and responsibilities towards the society.