Ethics and Innovation

I wrote a column in BusinessMirror last year on the need to get out of false dilemmas that businessmen often trap themselves in. I began:

"Is there a tradeoff between ethics and making money? We often think so. Therefore, unless there is enough fear that legal punishment or negative public opinion cannot be avoided, decisions will likely favor the financially rewarding, even if ethically dubious, course of action."

The column continues at http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/0524/oped06.php

The recent government decision to spend P1 billion on anti-poverty programs smacks of a knee-jerk reaction to a complex problem. While I'm willing to assume it's well-intentioned, I think that it has to be very well thought through. Otherwise, all that money will tempt the unscrupulous to come out of the wood work for their "share" and the poor will be no better.

Again, we need to avoid a false dilemma: Either we help the poor by large amounts of direct assistance OR we don't help the poor. Obviously, there must be other ways to help the poor.

Innovative solutions to helping the poor will have to involve improving the poor's capacity to help themselves. The economist David Ellerman (connected with the World Bank for some time) has written about "Helping People Help Themselves: Towards a Theory of Autonomy-Compatible Help" where he essentially argues that help which develops people must recognize that:

1. help must start from the present situation of the doers—not from a "blank slate",

2. helpers must see the situation through the eyes of the doers—not just through their own eyes,

3. help cannot be imposed upon the doers—as that directly violates their autonomy,

4. nor can doers receive help as a benevolent gift—as that creates dependency, and

5. doers must be "in the driver's seat"—which is the basic idea of autonomous self-direction.

Ellerman's lecture on this topic at the Paris Uplift Academy in April 27, 2006 is available at YouTube below.

Of course, as a Christian, I believe that helping as benevolence (Ellerman's #4) is really an act of love even if it doesn't necessarily lead to self-sufficiency. Acts of love can sometimes "spoil" people, as any parent knows.