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For the Love of Business

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Monika Mitchell
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Those who benefit from the current status quo and value self-interest over self-sacrifice will continue to oppose universal healthcare, consumer protection, financial and banking reform. The self-righteous haves will continue to disenfranchise the self-defeated have-nots in the battle for equality. The irony of Medicare patients fighting against publicly supported healthcare is not lost on anyone except themselves.

The financial industry, that benefited from direct bailouts of trillions of dollars, will continue to use the profits from their inequitable advantage to squash the dreams of impoverished and unemployed Americans.

Where is love in all of this? Sadly absent. Many ordinary people have been conditioned to think of love and business as separate. Yet the current state of selfishness defined as "virtuous" shows that the soul of money has been left out. Money has no soul or morality, but what we impose on it. If I am okay and you are not, will I help you or look the other way? If I make my living by taking yours, can I really feel I "earned" my lot?

The Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defined "moral virtue" as habit. How have we as "morally self-righteous" people developed a habit of indifference to the suffering of others and mistaken it for virtue? If love is the concern for our fellow humanity, then why isn't it a fundamental value in business? Where would we be today if "love for one's neighbor" had been part of the core business model in the mortgage market?

In America, we are caught in a vicious circle. Our individualism inspires us to innovate and create. Yet our self-focus obscures our common humanity. If we are part of the fortunate who survived the Great Recession, then full steam ahead. However, those who are left struggling to survive are rendered weak for the fight. It is left to the rest, those who have comfort and conscience to establish a new moral foundation that values prosperity for all, not just a chosen few.

Aristotle believed that the unlimited pursuit of wealth was both unnatural and a hindrance to real happiness. He believed that "money makers" focused on immediate pleasure and not on more weighty needs of the soul. The pursuit of wealth at the expense of the community would divide citizens and undermine the stability of society. The current state of the economy has proven the twenty-four hundred year old wisdom correct. (Politics. 1257)

Our "vicious circle" financial system, controlled by a small privileged percentage of the population, has completely abandoned large portions of society. They pull the strings of the economy like we are puppets without hearts or brains. This crisis has forced Middle Class America to its knees-all the more pie to divide up for the lucky few who dictate our lives behind the scenes.

A growing portion of American business, inspired by some of our European counterparts, is repeating the new mantra for the 21st century: doing well by doing good. More and more a growing consciousness among enlightened people comprehends the primitive nature of self-interest at the expense of our neighbors. It gets louder and louder and fills the moral vacuum with a revolution in social responsibility for a new generation of business minds. We believe in making money by making the world a better place.

Perhaps if we repeat it long enough, it will replace the economic brutality of the past.

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Monika Mitchell is the Chief Executive Officer of Good-b (Good Business International)a leading new media company xcelerating the movement for better business for a better world.
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