I have been invited on a few occasions to speak to university undergraduates about the relationship between business and society. I asked this question - "Do you know what is honest and dishonest behavior? Will you make a profit by making another person poorer?"
This question always stunned the students. They take it for granted that to make a profit is the right thing to do, and do not realize that there is a line beyond which they are acting dishonestly and cheating another party.
The penal code defines "cheating" as misleading another person or telling untruths knowingly and money or other property has passed. This type of behavior seems to be quite common, under the pretext of "caveat emptor" or "let the buyer beware". It is an excuse for dishonest behavior and worse, it is sanctioned by the state that promotes this concept.
The phrase "property has passed' makes the dishonest behavior a crime that will be prosecuted by the state. If there is no passing of property, i.e. lies told between people, it does not become a crime punishable by the state, but is nevertheless a dishonest behavior.
It is all right to make a reasonable profit for one's efforts and risk. There is a market rate for services and products. It is dishonest to misrepresent the product in a dishonest way, e.g. to state what it is not, and to sell it at an inflated price. This is "cheating" and is punishable by the state.
Our society has become quite dishonest in recent years. It is time to realize the difference between honest and dishonest behavior and to encourage people to be honest. Business corporations and the Government must set a good example for ordinary citizens to follow.
Tan Kin Lian
This question always stunned the students. They take it for granted that to make a profit is the right thing to do, and do not realize that there is a line beyond which they are acting dishonestly and cheating another party.
The penal code defines "cheating" as misleading another person or telling untruths knowingly and money or other property has passed. This type of behavior seems to be quite common, under the pretext of "caveat emptor" or "let the buyer beware". It is an excuse for dishonest behavior and worse, it is sanctioned by the state that promotes this concept.
The phrase "property has passed' makes the dishonest behavior a crime that will be prosecuted by the state. If there is no passing of property, i.e. lies told between people, it does not become a crime punishable by the state, but is nevertheless a dishonest behavior.
It is all right to make a reasonable profit for one's efforts and risk. There is a market rate for services and products. It is dishonest to misrepresent the product in a dishonest way, e.g. to state what it is not, and to sell it at an inflated price. This is "cheating" and is punishable by the state.
Our society has become quite dishonest in recent years. It is time to realize the difference between honest and dishonest behavior and to encourage people to be honest. Business corporations and the Government must set a good example for ordinary citizens to follow.
Tan Kin Lian
3 comments:
For example, if a doctor tells a patient that he is suffering for a specific illness, when the doctor deliberately misleads the patient, and the doctor makes a profit by prescribing treatment for that imaginary illness, the doctor is cheating the patient. The patient is not expected to be "aware" that he is being cheated. This is just an example of a dishonest behavior amounting to "cheating".
If you look at the behavior of sales people telling untruths to sell their products, you will find that there is not much difference in the two situations.
There is also another type of dishonesty. Suppose the sales person makes a statement, not realizing that the statement was false, was the sales person cheating? I expect the sales person to be diligent in verifying the truths of the statement before making it to the customer. This is also dishonesty, but of a lesser degree. Let us call it innocent dishonesty.
You can see many examples of deliberate and innocent dishonesty in our society.
Take this opportunity to pay tribute to David Conner, the outgoing OCBC CEO. Under him, OCBC does business not only for the purpose of making money out of the customer, but making the client a partner to make money also along with the Bank. This is one and perhaps the only Bank CEO in Singapore we respect and revere, he walks the talk, and does it so right, he's is one Banker with a great heart, would never make the client lose money for the sake of making money for OCBC. From our own experience, heartfelt thanks to Conner, a rare American breed.
God bless this American.
In early-2000s, my 70yo father always had headace. He consult GP and did a brain scan. It cost $1k at TTSH (very expensive). His brain was clear. GP refer him to a Nero Specialist. Patiet is given a french drug to imporve blood circulation of his brain. He use the drug for 1 year with regular specialist appointments. It costs $280 per month. He lost weight when medication.
One day, my sister read the instruction inside the prescribed medication box. We then come to know the side effect is lossing weight. We immediately stop my father to visit the so called Nuro Specialist at a private hospital.
Till today, my father is 80+, he did not take the brain medication over ten years and he has no complaint of headace.
QUESTION:
The doctor did not tell the side effect of drug, is he honest?
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