What is the good that a ‘good’ business does?[1]
Although the title of the book is
the good that business does, Robert G. Kennedy in the sixth chapter develops an
idea of ‘a good business’. He is also
developing the idea that how business is aiming at the collective or the common
good to the people at large. Although the book is aimed at seeking further
intercourse between the catholic teaching and business, it also leaves an open
space to raise some questions with regard to the theme developed.
It is true that when a business is
called good and bad, the same distinction can be applied to other spheres of
human endeavor too: in the field of aesthetics
one could speak of a good art and a bad one; in the field of ethics one could
speak of a good act and a bad act; in the field of medicine one could speak of
a good treatment and a bad treatment or a good medicine or a bad one, at a more
larger and wider context one could speak of a good religion and a bad religion
as well. I think that it is a good idea [!] to make distinction between good and
bad.
I think that there is a difference
between asking what is business and a good business. One of the fundamental
features of a business is profit-making. Hence one can speak of good that comes
out of the profit-making; even within profit making how certain good is
contributed to the society.
I am sure that the substantial
difference lies in the answer that one gets to these questions.
[1] This article is just a reflection on reading the following book.
Cf. Robert G. Kennedy, The Good that Business Does (Acton Institute,
2006). This is not a response to the book. The questions raised here are some
spontaneous questions that came to me. It is never intended to review the book,
nor to refute what is suggested there.
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