Business Ethics: Maintaining a Moral Compass Despite the Pressures of Commerce

The world of commerce is often a difficult one to navigate. Whether the position you hold is that of CEO, CFO or any other higher-level executive, maintaining a moral compass is one of the only ways you can help your company overcome the ethical obstacles, challenges and distractions the business world is bound to present.

You have to know, with certainty, the difference between right and wrong. You have to be able to maintain your integrity and be willing to be held accountable for the actions you take.

The CEO of Booher Research had it right when she stated in a recent Huffington Post article, "When people decide to disregard their moral compass as the official business handbook, they begin to make up the rules as they go."

Offbeat Jobs at Startups

Does innovation and variety inspire you? Are you the type of person who thrives around driven, intelligent, creative, passionate people? Then a job at a startup just might be in your future. Be warned though. If you’re going to help build a business from the ground up, you’ll most likely be part of the team building the foundation. In other words, be prepared to get your hands dirty.

It’s not likely that you’ll be hired on as ‘Engineer #1’ and walk out of the office after your first day with a forklift injury, but when you sign on with a startup, be ready to tackle the ”other duties as assigned” part of the job. New companies, especially those with little to no capital, don’t have the means to hire multiple people right out of the gate. So, they rely on the sparse work group they can bring on board to come to work with their A-game every day. As the sayings go, you will have to wear many hats and become a jack-of-all-trades, but the tradeoff can be immeasurable.

Your Government vs. Your Bank: Estate Planning & Eminent Domain

You’d think that banks might be happy for a solution to the mortgage crises. Especially in areas of the country where a majority of homes are underwater, mortgages are delinquent, and homeowners are abandoning their homes in droves. But one recent proposal to help with the problem has big banks up in arms. The solution involves the government obtaining underwater mortgages under its power of eminent domain.

A company called Mortgage Resolution Partners (MRP) developed this proposal, and is working to get county and city governments on board. The idea is that if banks fail to sell the loans to the government when offered fair market value, the government can force the sale under its power of eminent domain. Once the government owns the mortgages, MRP refinances the smaller (fair market value) loans, resulting in much more affordable payments for the homeowners.

Decreasing Labor Force & Increasing Disability Benefit Payments: Correlation?

“Jobs are down!”; “Benefit claims are up!” Alarmists can be heard shrieking and freaking- claiming this is sure evidence that lazy people are fleeing the workforce in order to sit on their butts collecting benefits! – But are they really?

A number of pundits have claimed a direct correlation between the recent upward trend in American’s Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) enrollment and the downturn in the number of people participating in the labor force. For example, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Chief US economist for J.P. Morgan, Michael Feroli, estimated that a quarter of all the people leaving the labor force are enrolling in SSDI. (The Wall Street Journal, 4/10/2013), Adding to the speculation, Fox & Friends commentators claimed the poor numbers shown in a recent jobs report were due to workers choosing to sit on the couch collecting benefits instead of going out to find a job and participating in the labor force. (http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/06/07/fox-rehashes-myth-that-unemployment-and-disabil/194385.)

What the “Fiscal Cliff” Resolution Means for Personal Estate Planning

At the end of 2012 one of the most popular media and water cooler topics was the so-called "Fiscal Cliff."  The Fiscal Cliff was such a frequent topic of discussion and debate because it referred to the serious financial ramifications that the United States would face if the Budget Control Act of 2011 went into effect on December 31, 2012.  These financial changes would have meant an end to the temporary payroll tax cuts, resulting in a 2% tax increase for employees, the end to several tax breaks for businesses, a change to the alternative minimum tax, a rollback of the "Bush tax cuts", and the beginning of taxes related to the Affordable Care Act. However, mere hours before midnight on December 31st, a deal was struck to avoid a financial crisis, and President Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (the "Act").  Among other things this resolution impacted taxes related testamentary and inter vivos gift-giving that may impact estate planning for some.  

  

Injured on the Job: Can You Be Replaced by a Seasonal Employee?

Janet works as a server and an assistant chef at a catering company. During a big event, she slipped on the wet tile floor in the kitchen while carrying a tray of dishes. When she fell, she hit her head on the corner of the sink and was immediately sent to the Emergency Room where she was diagnosed with a concussion. The neurologist told Janet that she should take a week off from work and discuss having a lighter work load and shortened shifts with her employer. Her employer, understanding that her injury was work related, agreed to shorten her shifts and make her work load lighter when she returned after a week. Before Janet was scheduled to return back to work, her concussion symptoms worsened and the neurologist told her she should return to work at a later date. Worried about her job and a pile of bills, Janet filed for workers’ compensation to cover her lost wages; her boss told her that a newly hired seasonal employee could pick up her shifts.

The Wage Gap - Only 13% of Food Workers Earn a Living Wage

Using the 5 most populous states (Illinois – 12,875,255; Florida – 19,317,568; New York – 19,570,261; Texas – 26,059,203; and California – 38,041,430) and comparing the living wage (as calculated by  MIT's Living Wage Calculator) to the minimum wage as reported by Minimum-Wage.org, it's easy to see the wage gap – only 13% of food workers earn a living wage.

Your Shrinking Social Security Check After the Government Shutdown

Millions of Americans, who have inadequate or no income, rely on monthly Social Security payments to pay for their basic living needs.  When the government faced a shutdown, earlier in October, new applicants faced the reality of a delayed process.  According to a Providence Social Security Disability Attorney, more than half of all Social Security cases are denied due to a tough application process.  With the government shutdown, many hopeful applicants, in desperate need of assistance, feared that they may never receive the assistance when they needed it.  However, prospective applicants were not the only ones worrying about the fate of Social Security.  Active recipients of government benefits worried that their assistance would be delayed while the government fought to come to an agreement on federal spending.  Fortunately, Americans who receive Social Security continued to receive their month checks on time.  With the shutdown over, many questions are still left unanswered, including the amount of next year’s Social Security.

The Dot-Com Boom: Perils and Promise of Rapid Growth through Incorporation

The year was 2008 and a new startup called Groupon took the Web by storm.
Groupon’s introduction into the marketplace spawned countless copycats and by 2011 it had already raised more than $1 billion in funding. However, as quickly as it grew … it just as rapidly fell.
The rise and fall of Groupon is but one of the many instances of a business growing too quickly in this dot-com era. Rapid expansion without a firm revenue method has seen the demise of many exciting tech startups but troubles in profitability are but one element of the equation.

Rapid growth often leads to quick, brash decisions in areas such as:

Killing Them Softly: Assisted Suicide

Is Assisted Suicide the Most Humane Way to End Unwanted Life?

Even though suicide is against the law in most of the United States, there are a few places – Oregon, Vermont and Washington – where that law has been turned on its head, providing for physician-assisted suicide (AS) for those victims of terminal and highly painful diseases.

One state, Montana, currently allows AS via a court ruling – what some would consider a legal precedent known as the Baxter decision. The physician responsible for this precedent-setting decision is Dr. Eric Kress, a family practitioner for 26 years. The incident itself, which ended the life of a terminally ill but mentally alert adult via prescription, has passed into history.

Unfair Labor Practices: Starbucks Lawsuit

             

Starbucks, one of the world’s most successful and largest coffee chains, is a customer favorite from the West to East Coast.  A corporation that started out in Seattle as a single retail store in 1971 expanded by great leaps and bounds in 40 plus years looks like a true success story for many business minded individuals.  The multi-million dollar corporation, with over 17,000 stores located internationally, offers numerous work opportunities for budding baristas and coffee aficionados, alike.  Many might think that Starbucks, keeping their small beginnings in mind, may make their employees their number one priority.  However, many Starbucks employees feel the brunt of a money hungry corporation rather than the “employee comes first” approach.  Employees, eager to fight for the respect they deserve are filing lawsuits against Starbucks to receive the workers’ compensation they are owed and rightly deserve; without baristas, Starbucks would not be what they are today.

Weird and Strange Laws

          


Did you know that in Illinois it is illegal to have sex with a corpse? Or that in Michigan it is illegal to sell a duckling that has been dyed? Or that in New Mexico idiots are not allowed to vote, while in South Carolina a man can go to jail for a year for breaking a promise to marry a woman? There are hundreds of state laws that many might find to be weird, causing some to wonder about the story behind their passage. Every law was passed to solve a societal concern. In some cases that concern is shared by a large part of the population, while in other cases the law addresses an issue known to only a few. In still other cases the law was passed to address a concern once shared by many, but now shared by few.

Temperature In Relation To Coal Mining Accidents

Coal Mining History

Coal mining used to be a dirty, dangerous, soul-destroying job. It has since morphed into a dirty and dangerous but rather well-paid job whose toll on the environment has increased even as its toll on the health and well-being of miners has decreased.  

The American coal-mining industry began in the latter half of the 18th century, in Pennsylvania, which was even as late as 1995 the fourth largest coal-producing state in the United States. Miners were typically immigrants, though commonly from countries which also had mining operations, like Wales or Germany. Men who did not know how the mines worked were not welcome because their lack of experience usually ended up killing others in addition to themselves. The only certainty in a coal miner’s life was the ubiquitous presence of coal dust and “gob”; that is, high-potency methane gas. Both, though mitigated by various modern ventilation and filtering methods, remain a constant.

U.S. Lacks Alternative Power Compared to UK

As the climate continues to warm, and normally cool or even cold places like Alaska break records during what is only the first month of summer, U.S. policy makers turn – belatedly – to the idea of alternative power.

It’s far too late to prevent some of the devastating effects of global warming, also known as climate change. In fact, it’s very likely that the planet will not only reach the unimaginable 2-degree increase in temperature predicted by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), but exceed it. This, at least, is the message from James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a highly reputable (if singularly disturbing) scientist in his own right.

The Mind of a Serial Killer: Dexter

Showtime’s “Dexter”, one of the network’s most popular long running shows, has Dexter Morgan fans starting to mourn the show as its rumored “final” season 8 aired in late June.  Hundreds of thousands of viewers tune in each week to watch the self-proclaimed monster, serial killer Dexter Morgan, carefully select his victims.  Viewers are drawn to Dexter because, while he is a serial killer, he is ridding the world of bad people.  Dexter’s killings play into morality; the good or the bad of another human being.  His victims are never innocent, but instead are guilty of murder, emotional, physical and/or sexual assault and other crimes involving innocent people.  Dexter’s killings attempt to create a balance in an unjust society, but taking a look at Dexter, is he really any better than his deserving victims?

5 Deadliest Workplace Disasters

No. 1, the Most Recent

In the wake of the 2013 clothing factory collapse in Bangladesh, at Rana Plaza, people in the developed world are beginning to turn their eyes and minds to the real cost of the clothing they buy.

And not a moment too soon. The more than 1,100 who died on April 24, and the thousands more who survived, are a haunting lesson in Third World economics. It was only when the larger world outside Bangladesh learned that garment workers were forced back into the building in spite of warnings surrounding the huge crack that had developed, that the incident developed moral overtones.

Is Your Sunscreen Dangerous?

What Is a Sunscreen

Just in time for a really hot summer comes this report from the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, about how sunscreen choices impact your life and, perhaps more importantly, the life of your perpetual motion machine, otherwise known as your offspring.

Will Stricter Gun Laws Decrease Violence and Death

With so many shootings in the news lately, it’s no surprise that Mother Jones is calling 2013 “…the worst year of mass shootings in modern US history.”

Mother Jones is one of the oldest, social-justice oriented, independent nonprofits in the United States according to Sourcewatch, the publication for the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).

The Center, an online nonprofit investigative reporting consorteum which includes ALECexposed.org and PR Watch, is not blameless, but still stands head and shoulders above such entities as the Heritage Foundation, the Heartland Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who appear aligned in their libertarian and/or rightist stance. 

Business Owner Responsibilities, Five Common Injuries from Slip and Fall Accidents

Slips and falls are not only the largest source of injuries in the home; they also occupy the lion’s share of reported injuries in public venues like grocery stores, shopping malls and restaurants. They are also prominent in the construction trades.  More important, they are most often reported in relation to day workers, temporary workers, or seasonal workers, who are at best semi-skilled.

Slips, trips and falls, notes OSHA (the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, a division of the Department of Labor), comprise the majority of general industry accidents as well; “general industry” meaning all the across-the-board enterprises which make, refine, or ship and deliver industrial, consumer and business products around the nation.

Financial Calculator: Avoid Bankruptcy

Even in the worst times, it is possible to avoid bankruptcy. There are, of course, some cases when it is virtually impossible. For instance, many people end up going bankrupt because they suffer a severe illness and, even though they may have a very good job and plenty of savings, they soon find all of their money drained away paying for medical expenses.