Ethics, please!
My friend Lance points his readers to this post by Chris Blattman at Yale who asks whether development agencies should fly business class.
Valid question. I remember, as a kid, having trouble understanding how a French friend of the family, member of the Communist Party for many years, could live in one of the most fancy streets of Paris and still claim to fight for the people, be a member of a party asking for increased taxation of the rich, etc. For him though, there were no contradictions. In fact, living in a nice area and driving a big car should be one of the goals of the community. “It’s not because I am a Communist that I should drive a small Peugeot” he then said. “Ultimately, everybody should be able to afford driving a Rolls Royce”. Sounded great when I was a kid. And totally unrealistic of course.
Same question the other day when I met someone who had just been laid off from its job in the finance industry, but who had landed 2 job offers just a few days/weeks after, whose wife doesn’t work because they don’t need two incomes and lives very comfortably. The problem? He signed up for unemployment benefits and was very happy to receive cash while taking a break in between 2 jobs. Ethically, I have a problem with that. This guy must have made $200K or $250K a year, excluding bonuses. Why does he need extra help in between jobs (the definition of benefits)? Does he not have any savings? Is he really in dire need of cash? Will the $2000+ a month that he receives from the government help him keep his lifestyle? NO! It’s just easy money. And I am sure he claims that since he contributed to it, he is entitled to it. Ah, that famous entitlement thing so dear to the finance industry.
In these times of crisis, unemployment benefits should really go to those who need it most and we know many middle-class people have been thrown back in the ranks of the poor due to this recession. This person should have refused unemployment benefits (or not signed up for it) simply because there are other people who need it more than he does. It’s not about wealth distribution or entitlement, it’s about ethics.
Thanks for the pointer.
I think Blattman’s question is interesting and not an easy one to resolve. I’d recommend looking at the generally very perceptive comments that his blog post produced.
It’s not quite the same, for me, as what in Britain is called champagne socialism. There’s no reason why wealthy people shouldn’t be in favor of greater social equality, perhaps through redistribution of wealth. That may be against their “class interest”, but people are often in favor of policies that run against their narrowly defined economic interest. There’s nothing hypocritical to me in a highly paid executive supporting progressive political policies. There are limits: there were periods when the PCF was more Stalinist than Eurocommunist, and that would be ridiculous. And I do think progressive values should be offended by the multi-hundred multiple of average workers’ salaries that CEOs pull down these days (to say nothing of wildly overpaid financiers).
The issue with development agencies is more nuanced. They are, in one way or another, publicly funded. They are not for profit organizations. As Blattman points out, the money for business class airfares (and, as you well know, Philippe, first class airfares) comes at the expense of development programs themselves. I think an economy-only policy, or some kind of restriction, would be a salutary tonic that would help better align the efforts of development agencies with the desperately poor nations they are designed to help.
Comment by Lance Knobel — May 11, 2009 @ 7:56 pm
[...] My friend Philippe Sion picks up the argument and equates it to a one-time French communist he knew. It’s not quite the same, for me, as what in Britain is called champagne socialism. There’s no reason why wealthy people shouldn’t be in favor of greater social equality, perhaps through redistribution of wealth. That may be against their “class interest”, but people are often in favor of policies that run against their narrowly defined economic interest. There’s nothing hypocritical to me in a highly paid executive supporting progressive political policies. And I do think progressive values should be offended by the multi-hundred multiple of average workers’ salaries that CEOs pull down these days (to say nothing of wildly overpaid financiers). [...]
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