Corporations forsaking moral purpose in the pursuit of better profits have been shaving corners off quality standards for years. The “faster and cheaper” techniques may be churning out more products (and more profits), but just how much needless illness, disease, and death are we willing to take?  How much is enough?

Among other problems, we’ve been hearing about lead-based paint on children’s toys [recall info], poison in dog food, and tainted toothpaste coming out of China. In fact, the US Consumer Product and Safety Division tells us 60 percent of all recalls in the US this year have been from goods made in China.

In a July, 2007 broadcast of Morning Edition on National Public Radio, it was reported that Chinese officials, after bowing to international pressure, admitted that “as a developing country, China’s current food and drug safety situation is not very satisfactory.”

Duh.

Obviously China is making headlines because a lot of defective products are being produced there. But it’s not all China’s doing. In large part, it’s the corporations getting their goods manufactured there. Corners are being cut on purpose to keep stockholders happy. 

I mentioned moral purpose (a term borrowed from Nikos Mourkogiannis and his book Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies). Mourkogiannis says companies focusing on excellence, altruism, heroism, or discovery are operating with a moral purpose.

But companies focusing on financial gain only for the sake of financial gain have a different purpose: Expediency. According to Mourkogiannis, expediency is an amoral purpose. He says companies pursuing expediency can be quite successful in the short term, but that won’t endure.

What should be done?

With regard to China, we have no control over their laws, and any hint of holding the line on human rights or improving quality standards disappeared more than a decade ago.

With regard to US corporations doing business there, these are huge entities with multiple layers of bureaucracy. Top decision-makers are spinmeisters extraordinaire, and their accountability is for creating profit, not acting with moral purpose.

The result? At the risk of sounding dramatic, more short-term profits for sure; but also more disease and more death.

Seriously, the question needs be asked on multiple levels: How much is enough?
 

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