Customer Reviews

Trapped: When Acting Ethically is Against the Law

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This book will deliver real examples of ethical challenges that face business and it may just change how you feel about them. It demonstrates why making the best corporate decisions are not always the best ethical ones. By clearly weighing the advantages and disadvantages of several approaches within four familiar scenarios, it establishes real challenges to think about from beginning to end. I'm ready to read it again!

John Hasnas gives us examples and scenarios that can help us to see his point on acting ethically when it is against the law. What can a business owner do? If you are in business, you will find this book extremely interesting. Being in the debt collection business this book is a great read, bill collectors are supposed to follow the law, act ethically all while being dubbed as the "bottom feeders" of society. Very interesting book and ideas.

Mr. Hasnas has written two very interesting books in one narrative. One is the discussion of the evolution of federal business regulations, the principles behind them, and the potential they have for conflicting with our common-sense ethical judgments. I've taught Business Ethics, and find Hasnas' discussion accessible, interesting, and very informative.

The other book Hasnas has written here is a poorly designed, poorly executed argument against banking laws and regulations. From the outset, Hasnas gives the feeling that he has an agenda, and it is summed up by himself in the last pages of the book: there ought to be no laws governing business; we should let business people make their ethical decisions unhindered by federal intervention.

Hasnas is either pitifully naive or a mediocre spokesperson for the criminal element that has brought about our current catastrophes in the marketplace. He carefully focuses on a few cases where, in principle, people of solid ethical character could do better without Federal interference; but he neglects the plethora of cases where unsuspecting investors, savers, consumers, et al, have fallen victim precisely to people/corporations which, when given the opportunity, showed themselves to be devoid of any moral decency, and to be all too willing to let personal greed overshadow public good.

We need only think of Enron, Goldman-Sachs, Lehman, and (the poster-boy for contemporary business) Bernie Madoff to see how completely misguided Hasnas is. His book is little more than a pretty straw man argument to let business continue its shady dealings.

Trapped: When Acting Ethically Is Against The Law by John Hasnas (Associate Professor, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, Washington DC) focuses upon ethical dilemmas arising from the over-criminalization of commonplace behaviors, demands of the law and ethics considerations for its violation, and the seemingly culturally sanctioned allowance of unethical behavior amongst corporate executives and businesses. Deftly exploring the impracticalities and seemingly inane concepts which restrict our citizens and fill our penitentiaries, Trapped is very strongly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in business ethics, white color crime, and their impact in a highly competitive marketplace.