ETHICS

The issue of ethics was brought to my attention by a community college instructor of mine.  She teaches both finance and ethics classes.  When that teacher brought in two speakers to her personal finance class hawking their services I found myself questioning her ethics.  After all, the students are expecting learning experience not a sales experience.  When one guest speaker came to explain long term health care insurance and bad mouthed Consumers Reports, I suspected the worst.  CR warned about the pitch and offered specifics that matched the speakers pitch.  Wow! I wonder, could the class instructor be receiving a kick back for every student signing up?  I do not know but she is a client of both of her guest speakers.  The instructor apparently has ignored the ethical implications even if there is nothing inappropriate in their relationships.

My dentist performed root canal and installed a new bridge in my mouth.  The entire area is still soar and the bridge is uncomfortable.  The bill is $3,500.    I pointed out to him that when my mechanic makes a mistake he refunds my money.  The dentist still wants to be paid.

This issue is even more significant in the current race for president.  Smears and innuendo appear to be a stock in trade part of the McCain campaign.  Are some of the concerns raised by McCain legitimate? Yes.  The problem is that the primary focus of John McCain has been smears.  The lack of focus on real issues is conspicuously beyond belief.  Perhaps his slogan should be “Service, Country First, Ethics Last.”

The Bill Ayers thing is totally ridiculous.  The Annenberg Foundation sponsored a group that included both Ayers and Obama. This is hardly a terrorist plot and is confirmed by factcheck.org. 

Not yet mentioned by the McCain campaign but many of his surrogates is the Reverend Wright issue.  It is a legitimate question when people ask how Obama could not have known about Wright’s views of America.  There is sufficient evidence that Obama did know about those views.

John McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts when they were first proposed.  More recently he has given wholehearted support for those cuts and wants them made permanent.  Was that a flip flop or an ethics issue?

Finally there is the question of Sarah Palin.  John McCain supports her without question but many highly respected conservatives doubt her ability to hold the position of president.  Isn’t this a breach of ethics for McCain to offer her as his stand in?