University of Guelph-Humber
Course:
Ethics & Values in Business (BADM2050), Winter 2004 Semester |
| REQUIRED READINGS |
Week
3 : Finding the Norm in an Upside-Down World
Lecture Tuesday, January 20, 2004 |
Week 4: Raw Realities
and Hard Costs: Justice and the Corporation
Lecture Tuesday, January 27, 2004 |
Week
6: Corporations in the Community: Circle of Virtue, or Circle
of Vice?
Lecture Tuesday, February 10, 2004 |
Week
8: Marketplace of Values: Ethical Issues in the Workplace
Lecture Tuesday, February 24, 2004 |
Week
12: The Paradox of Arms-Length Self-Interest
Lecture Tuesday, March 23, 2004 |
Week 12: The Paradox of Arms-Length Self-Interest
Lecture Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Goodbye Canada?, Paul Kemp
(Breakout Educational Network - Dundurn Press, 2003) pp. 92-93
PAUL:
In regards to the dynamism of the U.S. economy, I witnessed that
a troubling trend was occurring between Canada and the United States
in terms of job creation.
During the late 1990s the U.S. economy nearly doubled Canada’s
in terms of job creation. Since that time America’s unemployment
levels have significantly (and consistently) been lower than Canada’s,
at times reaching half our jobless rate. This means that, even when
Canada closes the jobless gap for short periods of time, the demand
for labour in the U.S. is much tighter. The U.S. job-creating machine
throughout the late 1990s did have negative affects on Canada—not
in an absolute sense, but in a relative one. Yes, the growth of
the U.S. economy meant that some of their surplus capacity and work
was being exported to companies in Canada. But is this a good thing
or bad thing? Some would state that this is fine for Canadians and
we certainly benefited.
However, what I was observed was that Canadians, in many industries,
were simply becoming the low-wage workers of the U.S.’s fast-growing
companies. With our weakened Canadian dollar, American companies
could pay salaries for 62 cents on the dollar and get equally talented
and hard-working employees if they set up an office in Canada. Plus,
if they were in the right industry, they could often get some nice
federal government research and development tax credits to boot.
Now jobs are jobs and many Canadians might say any jobs are better
than no jobs, but let’s look a little deeper. When a company
sets up shop here, are we not, in a sense, being used as “slave
labour,” a country able to sell our wares cheap because of
a diluted dollar? Are we fostering industries based on a weakness,
our cheap dollar, instead of a strength, our brains? Further, who
is calling the shots in these business transactions? It was clear
it was increasingly becoming Americans with little or no allegiance
to this country. Sure, they may look at their company’s bottom
line and see Canada as good place to do business (we speak English,
and understand their culture), but their ties here were often weak.
This was a trend I saw across the board with highly skilled employees
in Canada, and these employees were not oblivious to the situation.
They were the same employees who were demanding to work for the
American arms of their companies, and get paid in U.S. dollars.
As a Canadian, it made me consider if this is what we wanted to
be as a nation—comparatively advantaged over the U.S. because
we can do a lot of their businesses’ grunt work at a cheap
rate. Perhaps I am being harsh here, but it forced the issue and
made me think about what we must do to change our situation.
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