I have just finished reading Lou Dobbs, “War on the Middle Class.” Good book, but far from perfect! Although Lou gets most of it right, he exhibits a number of blind spots that an objective reporter would have shunned.

For instance, he states that he believes that most businesses are honest. No evidence supports this belief, and much of what Lou himself criticizes belies it. If most businesses were honest, the national business organizations that Lou excoriates would be singing different tunes.

Lou, likewise, has a bias against employee unions, completely ignoring the fact that business and other so-called professional organizations such as the NAM, ABA, and the AMA are not only unions but unions that are much more influential and powerful when it comes to influencing governmental policies than employee unions ever were. Furthermore, he never mentions the benefits to society that employee labor unions fought for and established, many of which are now under fire from the business community and its proprietary organizations. But the most obvious fault is the book’s lack of a search for ultimate causes.

Lou seems happy with proximate causes. But the problems within American journalism did not arise in American journalism; the problems within the Congress did not arise in the Congress, and the problems in the business community did not arise in the business community.

Some of these causes certainly originate in America’s colleges and universities. For some unstated reason, our colleges and universities do not instill in their students either the importance of truth or a commitment to it. So our journalism schools turn out journalists who lack a commitment to either. Our law schools turn out lawyers who know lots of law but lack a commitment to truth and justice. Furthermore, these law schools fail to take into account that many of their graduates will not practice law at all, but will become legislators. Yet what training do their students get in the virtues needed by legislators if we are to have a nation “of the people, by the people, and for the people?” Many graduate departments turn out Ph.Ds. who then go to work for the so called “think tanks” that Low excoriates as being hired guns for wealthy special interests, and no academic groups seem interested enough to read and refute these fraudulent “studies.” The teachers in our primary and secondary schools, for the most part, try very hard to put into practice the teaching methods they have been taught in our teacher’s colleges. And worst of all, our advertising and business executives were taught their principles in marketing departments and schools that offer that “ersatz” degree known as the MBA. Yet Low has no chapter on the failure of our colleges and universities.

But even if he had, there is still a deeper question. Why do our colleges and universities fail to instill in their students the importance of truth and justice and a commitment to them? To answer this question is to get to the root of our society’s problems; yet I believe the answer is obvious.

The name of the game in America is, “Get the other guy’s money.”

Yes, some get the other guy’s money by providing worthwhile products and services, but many others get it by hook and crook. We have heard it said so often that a business’ only responsibility is to make money for its stakeholders that hardly anyone questions it. Yet that claim cannot be true, for it is also the claim of all criminal activities. When legitimate companies and criminals have exactly the same goal, society has lost its compass.

The difference between a legitimate business and a criminal activity is that a legitimate business is formed in accordance with a society’s laws and exists for a social purpose. Mere money making is not a social purpose. Any business that fails to take into consideration the needs of its society’s people and attempt to fulfill those needs is, in truth, little more if anything than a criminal enterprise. Sadly, that’s what most American businesses have become.

©2007 John Kozy, Jr.