Let me preface this entire discussion with the fact that I realize ethics is a dangerous ground to head into. I’m still going there, because I read something today that really made me consider whether those with money choose to ignore their ethics.

As part of my normal routine, I read a lot of different news sources and materials. One of my favorite sites to read as a freelance writer is Freelance Writing Jobs. The link will take to you to the article I was reading that brought about this post, but to sum it up for you, a college student placed a Craigslist ad for someone to take their Bio exam for them.

There was no mention of rate for this particular ad, but regardless, I have to worry about the quality of applicants this individual received anyway. He posted the ad the day before the test, so there was no room to really screen the responses to this ad. While the student probably thought he was being resourceful, he clearly had the money to choose to ignore his ethics. Everyone in college, and I’d venture as far as to say everyone in America, knows that hiring someone else to take your exam is ethically wrong and if he were caught, he’d be expelled. It’s the same thing as cheating. Period.

But this is only one example of many. Look at the number of term paper mills seeking writers to write term papers, then turn around and sell them to desperate students. Both sides of that equation are missing their ethics. But, even better, I saw an ad on a freelance site not too long ago that was looking for a writer who could turn in a polished essay on ethics. There’s morality at it’s best!

You may be wondering what any of this has to do with money and ethics. Well, clearly people are willing to cheat in order to get ahead. With the example of the student above, he was willing to pay someone to take his test for him instead of simply doing the work himself. It’s a shortcut. But, consider recent events. Let’s start with the subprime mess.

Lenders actually gave money to people they knew good and well couldn’t afford those payments, but because they wanted to make money they invented loan styling’s that allowed them to approve the loans. They were so greedy and saw nothing but a quick bottom-line return that they sacrificed their ethics. Now, we’re paying for the ramifications of that decision. Money outweighed their ethics in this case.

Let’s look at the banking industry. I can tell you with a certain amount of personal experience that there are some banks whose practices are a bit unethical. I won’t go into which ones and what they’re doing, but there is a reason I am at a credit union now.  The last bank I worked for was really big on pushing Home Equity loans at people. It didn’t matter if the product wasn’t right for the customer, they wanted to see the numbers increase. My manager at the time was perhaps the worst about this. He told every client he talked to that we weren’t running an application, we were simply running a pre-approval to see if they would qualify for the loan. It was an out-and-out lie because we didn’t run pre-approvals, we only ran applications on real estate loans. But, the branch with the most loan applications got more money come bonus time.

Before you think this was simply the choice of one branch manager, let me tell you this was widely accepted as a standard practice by the company as a whole. It took one time for him to do that to one of my clients – while I was sitting there no less – and I called HR asking for an immediate transfer, to which I was told it was standard practice and they couldn’t possibly move me. Even when I gave my two weeks notice and sent an email to the CEO of the company explaining what was going on, the most that happened was that the branch manager was moved to a different district – a district that was way behind on their loan numbers, I might add.

To me, their choice was clearly money over ethics and poor ethics was often rewarded. I chose my ethics and went to a credit union. I took a significant pay cut to do it, but I think I sleep better at night knowing that I’m not intentionally ripping people off. I’m not saying every bank does this, but I think there’s a reason 25 banks have failed this year. They chose to invest in risky portfolios to make more money in the short-term and often did things that weren’t in the best interests of the customer.

I’ll even put to you that the ethics of the $700 billion bailout was a little questionable. Not so much the actual signing of the bill, but the usage of the money. Our elected officials – those whose responsibility it is to protect the interests of the people – signed that bill with all due haste. Fine, it was needed at the time. But, there was no thought beyond “bailing out” the banks, whose unethical practices and greediness put us in the position in the first place. In fact, the government basically told banks, they had to take their piece of the $700 billion pie whether they needed it or not.

Explain to me why that was necessary. Two of the larger banks that certainly didn’t need the $25 billion forced upon them are using it to help acquire other struggling banks. Given that the money was meant to help those in trouble, those who weren’t and didn’t need the money should have never received a penny. It was a misuse of taxpayers money, and as government officials it was an irresponsible and unethical way to handle the bailout. There should have been specific rules and regulations surrounding that money. And what wasn’t needed should have been appropriated to helping struggling homeowners.

To me it’s no wonder we’re looking at a depression. Those with money and influence over our economy have abandoned the ethics and morals that should be principal to their core business. They have chosen money over ethics. And I’m not suggesting every business or industry does this. I fully believe it’s a choice that is made. I am saying; however, that the reason we are where we are is because so many companies and leadership figures have forgotten their ethics.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think it’s more complicated than just a choice of money over ethics?

Related posts:

1. Honor and Ethics: Does America Need a “Lending Code?”
2. What the Banks are Doing With Our Money…
3. How to lend money to Friends without ruining the Friendship
4. A REALLY Stupid Money Move
5. Can the Rich Teach The Rest of Us Anything About Money?