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 Obedience and Greed 
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It seems to me that when you add money to any situation people have trouble standing up for their morals. I would be curious to see if the Milgram experiment would have had a different outcome had the participant not been receiving money.

In class Andy mentioned the downfall of WorldCom and Enron. I used to work for the accounting firm who were the auditors for both WorldCom and Enron. For our projects on Enron we received 1 million dollars per week in fees. Yes, $52 million a year to be their auditors. As an auditor you are supposed to be "indepnedent" in auditing a companies financial statements...it is difficult for a company to be objective when $52 million are on the line. In effect because of peoples inability to be disobedient 80,000 peoples lives were affected when our accounting firm, Arthur Andersen went bankrupt because they were unable to stand up to the executives of Enron who wanted them to fudge the financials. Unfortunately, greed, pride and power drive many peoples decision-making skills and morals. :(

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Kellie Coffey


Tue Jul 13, 2004 8:54 pm
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Kellie,

What would matter is whose hand it is put into. Many, and I really mean many, people put money to good use when it is handed to them. Is this an example of the majority? I really don't think so. The majority would do things for themselves but that doesn't mean their choices are somewhat less moral because they have more money. I would say it is because they want more or better things. Those who put that money to good use usually are less materialistic and distribute their new wealth to help others. The biggest group that receives these gifts (besides the government with taxes) is churches. Ten percent usually goes to the churches or to some charity. Ask anyone (I know a few) that has won a lottery and they will tell you that yes they will buy things but everyone that I talked to said they gave to their church or a charity because it was the right thing to do or it was because of their faith. Does money bring immoral behavior? Yes. Does money bring immoral behavior the majority of the time? If you judge by watching TV or listening to the news - yes, but in everyday life money does not hide immorality in it's sleeve. I think that the people in the experiment would have done the same thing if they did not receive money because they do not have the confidence to defy a decision made by someone they feel is superior.

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Chuck Rananto


Last edited by Chuck Rananto on Fri Jul 30, 2004 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Wed Jul 14, 2004 12:20 am
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Kellie:

That must have been interesting to have worked with a company that got such notoriety. Yes, when confronted with enough money people find it hard to be honest. We all are guilty.

In the Milgram experiment, what is disturbing to me is that the partcipants were probably not paid that much. This of course is an assumption. It appeared that the people were most interested in avoiding getting into trouble with the 'authorities'. Even if that meant killing someone.

Greed does also play a part. It appears that the accounting firm was going to ignore the warning signs as long as they were getting the one million dollar checks. How many of us could turn it down.

One person I think highly of is the football player who turned down large contracts to join the army and ended up being killed in Afganistan. He is a better man than I am, I could not have turned down the contracts.

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Graham Ponder


Wed Jul 14, 2004 9:02 am
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Money cures lots ailments. Unfortunately, money and power causes people to do crazy and disbitful things. That is why people don't hear of all the white collar crime, because people pay to keep it quiet. You don't hear of abuse that goes on in white collar households because they pay to keep it quiet. People think that poor and impoverished people are the one committing the crimes, but more crime is committed by the wealthy and powerful we just don't hear about it. Its "hush money." Crime committed by the wealthy hurt more of the society than crime committed by the poor.
Wendy Smith


Wed Jul 28, 2004 3:20 pm
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Wendy,

I agree with you. Just as much crime, and probably even more is committed by the wealthy. Many wealthy people, including stars, are arrested for cocaine. A wealthy person can pay somebody off to cover up their crime, or they can pay somebody to take the blame and serve their jail time if they wanted. I am so glad that these CEOs of corporations are finally being prosecuted for their embezellments and insider tradings. They have been taking money away from the people who need it the most.

Michelle Rogers


Fri Jul 30, 2004 4:26 pm
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I also think that money seems to give people the resource they need to be disobedient against moral and written laws and to get away with it. We need to reinforce the notion of equality and obligation to the laws in all our classrooms.

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Christy J. Hall


Sat Jul 31, 2004 9:46 am
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It appears that ethics is something that people have forgotten. What would class members do if they were walking down the hall in the class building and found a $50 bill. Would everyone try and find the rightful owner? I would hopen the answer would be yes. When I asked a class of 7th graders an ethics question the most common answer I received is if they didn't get caught then whats the problem. I am not sure how we change this attitude.

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Andy


Mon Aug 02, 2004 12:15 am
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Andy,

I think it is important to teach kids about integrity...doing what is right even when nobody is watching. As teachers, I think we can really influence how they think about this.

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Kellie Coffey


Mon Aug 02, 2004 3:43 pm
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