Goldman contends they have done nothing but sell what other sophisticated investors wanted to buy.\u00a0 Did they do anything “wrong”?<\/p>\n\t
Hmm…….<\/p>\n\t
I want to draw a distinction between ethics and morals:<\/p>\n\t
Ethics is a set of rules, often set by a group, that defines right and wrong.\u00a0 Morals are our own personal definition of right and wrong.\u00a0 The two will hopefully be similar, but not always the same.<\/p>\n\t
Goldman’s claim is that they have broken no rules:<\/p>\n\t
They sold things others wanted to buy.<\/p>\n\t
They made the best profit they could.<\/p>\n\t
They did not break the law.<\/p>\n\t
If you add a bit of personal responsibility (morality) to those claims though, the statements change:<\/p>\n\t
They sold things others wanted to buy – – – EVEN though it was complete crap.<\/p>\n\t
They made the best profit they could – – – EVEN when it came at the taxpayers expense or through special connections.<\/p>\n\t
They did not break the law – – – EVEN though they perverted the intention of the law.<\/p>\n\t
Goldman is basically claiming that if they didn’t break any rules, then they didn’t do anything wrong<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\t When we all know that is complete crap; its a lawyer’s excuse…finding some way of weaseling out of responsibility when it is plain to everyone they’re a bunch of crooks.<\/p>\n\t Not that I’m necessarily singling out Goldman.\u00a0 The “profit motive” is a ruthless amoral code; it is the economic phrasing for “the end justifies the means”.<\/p>\n\t For Goldman, and many other companies, all that is not illegal is permissible<\/strong>.\u00a0 The law is something to avoid and manipulate.\u00a0 The spirit of the law is irrelevant.<\/p>\n\t So, to wrap up…Yes, Goldman has done something wrong….not breaking rules is not the same thing as doing what is right.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Goldman contends they have done nothing but sell what other sophisticated investors wanted to buy.\u00a0 Did they do anything “wrong”? Hmm……. I want to draw a distinction between ethics and morals: Ethics is a set of rules, often set by a group, that defines right and wrong.\u00a0 Morals are our own personal definition of right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[65,64],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3IMYj-4N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":285,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=285","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":0},"title":"History: The key to the future","author":"kellio","date":"March 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I never thought much of history when I was in high school.\u00a0 Why do we need to remember all that silly stuff that happened a long time ago?\u00a0 That was never fully explained, and so it seems a little pointless. Now I know it matters, and I wish someone would've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"history\"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?tag=history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":302,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=302","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":1},"title":"How do you win a game?","author":"kellio","date":"May 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote last time about the concept that Goldman is employing:\u00a0 \"all that is not illegal is permissible\". When they say they did nothing wrong, they mean they did nothing illegal. If some judge finds that what they did IS illegal, they will find another judge.\u00a0 If all judges find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Inside My Head"","block_context":{"text":"Inside My Head","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=34","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":2},"title":"The important questions","author":"kellio","date":"December 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I have grown tired of asking questions to which I know there are no answers. Perhaps that is adulthood? I ask more immediate questions these days: What will I do today after work? What will I do today at work? Where will I eat dinner? What kind of beer do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Favorite Entries"","block_context":{"text":"Favorite Entries","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":265,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=265","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":3},"title":"Energy Efficiency, Corporate Person-hood, and Free Will","author":"kellio","date":"December 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"People and their values.\u00a0 Anyway, 1st up today is: Energy Efficiency It's a red herring.\u00a0 ENERGY EFFICIENCY WILL NOT AFFECT GLOBAL WARMING.\u00a0 It will make it worse. Econ 101:\u00a0 If you make something more efficient people will use it MORE, not less.\u00a0 Take the cotton gin....before it was invented, we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Thoughts on Work"","block_context":{"text":"Thoughts on Work","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":728,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=728","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":4},"title":"Why Ayn Rand was wrong","author":"kellio","date":"May 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I've read a lot of her books: Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Anthem, We The Living, and also a few of the non-fiction works. \u00a0I found them inspiring and they've had an influence on my life. \u00a0And...I think she is mostly wrong regarding what our relationship should be with other people (which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories\/Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Stories\/Observations","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":363,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=363","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":5},"title":"Wikileaks: Are they doing anything wrong?","author":"kellio","date":"December 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I will keep Wikileaks separate from Julian Assange, since I'm more \u00a0interested in the concept of Wikileaks than the person representing it. \u00a0I will also keep the specific content of the cables largely out of the discussion, since that is not central to my question either (btw, I didn't find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Inside My Head"","block_context":{"text":"Inside My Head","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}