When In Doubt

Given the "latest in the series" as they say (i.e. Madoff and Stanford) many of the talking heads both on and offline have dusted off all the stuff they wrote when they were writing about Ebbers, Lay, et al each of whom were desparately jocking for space in the papers, on blogs and the FBI's Most Wanted List.

I guess I probably should include the likes of Citi, BOA, Freddie Mac, etc. as part of "the list" too, but I think I am still too ticked off to deal with it. I am still at the "let's draw and quarter them" stage.

Anyway, every time I read or hear about this stuff, I just can't help wondering why such a simple and fundamental set of values seems to have been lost by so many of those who used to carry around the title of "leader."

I figured if everybody else was doing it, maybe I should dust of my "when in doubt" file and see what I had saved. What turned up was the following from Norman Augustine.

Here's what he had to say:

How can one decide what the ethically correct thing to do is? Answer the following questions:

1. Is it legal?

2. If someone else did "this to you," would you think it was fair?

3. Would you be content if this were to appear on the front page of your hometown newspaper?

4. Would you like your mother to see you do this?

I suppose that instead of this list he could have just said why not try the one that starts with "Do unto others..." but I guess he thought that one was already spoken for.

Anybody out there have any suggestions who we might send these guidelines to who might have missed the memo?