Ethics class today was great.  Professor Bernard guest-led a session on the ethics of international supply chains.

I somehow found myself taking the stand that assisted suicide is OK.  As usual, great genius is misunderstood.  All I was trying to say is that if workers willingly chose to enter a contract, who are we to judge their decisions?  Yes, even if that contract involved a 20% chance of being shot in the face by their boss.  So long as we give individuals all the information, and they are intelligent enough to process that information, we can enter into mutually beneficial agreements.

But I want to make another point here.

In the course of our discussion about a sourcing decision for Levi Strauss, one of my esteemed classmates held up Cargill as an example of an ethical corporation that sticks to its values.  In fact, Cargill goes much further than this: they actively seek to impose their values all over the world.

The CEO came to Tuck a few weeks ago and gave a talk about exporting midwestern values all over the world.  This makes me very very afraid, and is actually one of the prime reasons I started this blog—to export my values all over the world, as a counterweight.  Cargill has every right to conduct its affairs how it pleases, and if Cargill finds a formula of success that works, they should stick with it.  They have every right to do so, but the consequences for society are pretty scary.

Here you have a massive corporation actively promoting a system of values.  Midwestern values.  You know, like, apple pie is good and all non-Christians are going to burn in hell.  Harmless stuff like that.  This massive corporation has found that by promoting these values, it can reinforce certain behaviors that are beneficial to its business.  The corporation continues to grow.  And on and on.

What’s next–legislating morality?  Happens all the time, even right here in this country.  Gays can’t get married because people feel that gays are immoral.  Law abiding citizens can’t do drugs because people feel that drugs are immoral.

As the process of natural selection works its way through the economy, companies like Cargill will continue to grow.  I don’t fault them for this (catchy post title notwithstanding, this is good business), but I worry about the consequences of moral absolutism (especially when they’re not my morals!).

More on this later.