The word business is nowadays accompanied by a metaphorical holding of the nose. Post the financial crisis, businessmen would probably rank just above bankers and below more traditional last placers like real estate agents, in the list of reputable professions. Readers of this blog would know that the author is a staunch defender of business and advocates the view that the profession is unfairly maligned. An earlier post had touched on this subject.
It was gratifying to read The Economist’s Schumpeter column, The Silence of Mammon, which argues that business people should stand up for themselves. The article recounts the two arguments it says proponents have put forth in defence of business – that many firms are devoted to good works and that businessmen have done more than any other institution to advance prosperity. It opines that these are not enough and puts forth three more arguments to counter the critics of business who have dominated the discussion on corporate morality – that business is a remarkable exercise in cooperation, that business is an exercise in creativity and that business helps maintain political pluralism. All excellent arguments, in an eminently readable article.
I wade into this debate with unbridled enthusiasm. I have little sympathy for those who taint businesses as immoral with a broad brush. At the cost of oversimplifying a complex matter, I set out a central theme in defence of business and industry.
I come from a poor country, India, and now live in another one, China . I have seen how degrading poverty is to humanity. And it is China that I want to present in defence of business. In 1981, 84% of China’s population of a billion plus was below the poverty line of $1.25 a day. In 2005, in the same China, the percentage of population below the same poverty line had decline to just 16% (source : World Bank working paper 5090). Yes SIXTEEN per cent. That equals to 700 million people who have climbed above the poverty line. We all know how this was done.
Show me any other way of pulling 700 million people out of poverty and I’ll abandon all defence of business.
It was gratifying to read The Economist’s Schumpeter column, The Silence of Mammon, which argues that business people should stand up for themselves. The article recounts the two arguments it says proponents have put forth in defence of business – that many firms are devoted to good works and that businessmen have done more than any other institution to advance prosperity. It opines that these are not enough and puts forth three more arguments to counter the critics of business who have dominated the discussion on corporate morality – that business is a remarkable exercise in cooperation, that business is an exercise in creativity and that business helps maintain political pluralism. All excellent arguments, in an eminently readable article.
I wade into this debate with unbridled enthusiasm. I have little sympathy for those who taint businesses as immoral with a broad brush. At the cost of oversimplifying a complex matter, I set out a central theme in defence of business and industry.
I come from a poor country, India, and now live in another one, China . I have seen how degrading poverty is to humanity. And it is China that I want to present in defence of business. In 1981, 84% of China’s population of a billion plus was below the poverty line of $1.25 a day. In 2005, in the same China, the percentage of population below the same poverty line had decline to just 16% (source : World Bank working paper 5090). Yes SIXTEEN per cent. That equals to 700 million people who have climbed above the poverty line. We all know how this was done.
Show me any other way of pulling 700 million people out of poverty and I’ll abandon all defence of business.
