Reconciling the Uncertainties of Business and the Ethics of Care

Abstract

I begin by clarifying Machiavelli’s overly simplified platitude: a leader should be loved or feared. I also show that Machiavelli’s short-term political paradigm is present in business and that raises ethical and economic conflicts. I believe these conflicts could be obviated with the ethics of care. I thereby introduce the ethics of care as defined by Virginia Held with focus on care as the larger framework in which regulations should fit. I then develop the view of business [with care] that habituates actions to yield intended consequences, as care is entirely concerned with long-term goals. I examine care through a closer understanding of individuals, relationships, and concepts of ownership. I include a case study on the financial crisis to show how public systems would fall apart without care. I conclude with a perspective on that, and how the crisis was unique to the housing bubble and not previous recessions following the Great Depression.