Business Ethics Essay
Business ethics are a moral code that people conducting any sort of business should feel honorably obligated to follow. People are definitely morally responsible to follow a code of ethics and should never cheat each other. Parts of this code of ethics should be honesty, integrity, fidelity, charity, responsibility, and self-discipline. Those ethics should apply both to a person buying something, and a person selling something. I don’t believe that a person should be forced to follow the caveat emptor policy, on the basis that it is unfair and unjust both to the buyer and seller.
If you are an ethical person, you should not have to warn people to beware.
A person selling something is morally obligated to inform the purchaser of several things: the value of the car at cost, faithfulness to the client, and be able to answer any questions honestly, without any hold-backs.’ In The Grapes of Wrath, it is obvious that the car dealer was not ethical at all. For example, they used to coerce women into liking specific cars, so the husband would have to feel forced’ to buy the car to impress their girlfriends/wives. Another example is how the car dealer used to put lousy parts into the cars and sell them, knowing that the car would break down 5 miles down the road. He took advantage of the people’s necessity to get out of Oklahoma for his own personal gain.
Also, the buyer has a certain responsibility too. They need to make sure to not completely trust the seller, because not everyone is ethical. They should examine the goods carefully, ask educated questions, and read up on the topic before going ahead and buying something. For example, in The Grapes of Wrath, the car dealer was able to take more advantage of the people because he can see the raw need on their faces, and how they didn’t really ask anything to make him give them a better deal. Therefore, the people didn’t do their part of being ethical buyers to get the best and most honest deal.
The advertiser also has a big responsibility too, to be honest in the ads.
For example, in The Grapes of Wrath, the car dealership advertised a nice car at a very cheap price, but they never sold that car. They lied to the people who wanted to buy that car, saying that it had just been sold. They took advantage of the people’s naivete, and that is very wrong. Those car dealers were definitely unethical, taking advantage of people just because the demand was greater than the supply, they seized upon the opportunity to rip people off of their hard-earned money. .
