What Role Does Business Play?

Until recently, I considered the role of my business to be this: provide adequate income to my wife and me to live a reasonably comfortable life, while serving the needs of my clients and providing a fair wage and benefits to my staff. Not particularly grandiose, I know, but that was essentially how I saw my business. I'm beginning to look at it differently of late.

After Hurricane Katrina, I felt compelled to use some of the resources of my business to make a donation to the American Red Cross; I wanted to do something. I encouraged my staff to make a donation, too, which I said I would match, up to $200 (making their donations worth $400). I was disappointed that only half of them made donations, and those donations were, in my view, rather small. But I matched their donations (and the donation my wife and I made), and added enough to make a $1000 donation from my company.

I had an opportunity to attend a meeting of other people in my line of work shortly thereafter and was pleased, initially, to hear some of my colleagues say they had made similar decisions and similar contributions. But the more I listened, the more it seemed to me that I was hearing a bunch of people congratulating themselves for giving money that did not even belong to them. These people work for organizations that pay their salaries, but they do not have a particularly personal stake in the organizations. And the money they contributed to the charities that are helping the victims of the hurricane was not money that would cause my colleagues to feel any personal discomfort. I know it sounds like I am berating these people for not giving more; but that's not quite it. I'm concerned that businesses, associations...organizations of all kinds...don't necessarily see themselves playing a hands-on role in responding to and correcting human misery. They give within their comfort zones.

I began thinking beyond responding to an immediate crisis. What about responding to the ongoing drudgery of poverty? What about helping people get past the things that are keeping them from achieving some degree of self-sufficiency and self-respect?

All these issues raises the question: what role does, or should, business play in giving everyone an opportunity to live with respect and dignity? On one hand, I think business should be far more generous, in general, than I believe it is. The vast sums of money that are reported as profits of large corporations make me think many of those dollars should go to better uses. On the other hand, I am a capitalist and I do believe that people should be able to reap the rewards of their own efforts, intellectual pursuits, etc. Is there a happy medium between "caring for the masses" and sucking every cent possible for owners and shareholders?

I believe there must be a happy medium, but it can only be achieved by introducing into the business mindset and honoring a morality based on the value and dignity of every person. Business can contribute, but society across the board must make an effort. My immediate thought is that churches, religion in general, have attempted to make such an effort. As much as I dislike churches and their dogma, I have to admit that, sometimes, churches do help people through hard times, though churches do have an ulterior motive. Unfortunately, churches rely on a invisible power to inflict fear into humankind in order to convince people to behave charitably. That's no good. So what can we do to inject a "baseless" morality into society? I think one place to start is business. There are many, many businesses in this world; most people spend a great deal of their lives involved, in one way or another, with businesses. If businesses would take it upon themselves to promote a social order that supports people who need support, the rest of society might follow suit.

What role does business play? I'm not sure. What do you think? Am I being a hopeless Pollyanna?