“If you’re not in business to contribute to society, you shouldn’t be in business”

Our Proposal:

• Put into place an automated system to score a business’s ethics and contribution to society
• Establish an International Business Day

The Goal:

• Incentivize businesses to adhere to a higher standard of behavior

Explanation:

If one were to create a simple “Prosperity Pyramid”, it could look like the following:

At its base would be “Unlimited Clean Energy,” which would be the foundation for creating an opportunity-rich and prosperous economy. According to physics, energy is the ability to do work, so unlimited energy means a limitless capacity to get things done. Smartly channeling this boundless energy would enable innumerable transformative projects and achieve ever wider prosperity. Further, unlike fossil fuels, domestically produced clean energy would not be subject to global market price fluctuations and catastrophic geopolitical tensions.

The middle of the Prosperity Pyramid consists of a Creative and Highly Adaptable Workforce, which would be well prepared to quickly respond to new opportunities in a dynamic free enterprise marketplace. With limitless energy at its disposal, this workforce could create novel solutions to difficult challenges and realize ambitious goals for the benefit of all.

In our Prosperity Pyramid, The Solutions Party envisions an “Efficient Government” that is run by “Visionary Leaders”—problem-solving, selfless, and (above all) one-term-limited elected officials who have no possibility of putting their own political ambitions ahead of the public good. It is further envisioned that government also has access to the Creative Workforce highlighted in the Pyramid. This (as envisioned) by-and-large temporary government workforce exists to serve the public, enforce regulations, interface with the private sector to carry out public projects, and constantly come up with innovative ways to make government more efficient.

At the top of the Pyramid is “Ethical Private Enterprise", which is supplemented by the “Visionary Leaders, and Efficient Government” described above. The term “Private Enterprise” refers to all businesses in a free-market, capitalist economy. Compared to government-centric economies, history has clearly shown that private enterprise is the most efficient system for responding to the demands of the marketplace, and if done correctly is the most effective way for generating widespread wealth and improving the overall standard of living. Private enterprise in coordination with government is also effective for implementing large public projects that are not possible or practical through the supply-demand market mechanism—such as infrastructure and space exploration.

The Essence of Business: More Than Just About Making Money

The profit motive is why a free enterprise-based economy is so effective. Businesses seek to make money and maximize their profits, and this is a powerful incentive to adeptly respond to the demands of the marketplace, create superior products and services, and operate efficiently. An effectively channeled profit motive is the key ingredient to survive and thrive in a competitive economic environment.

But should making money be the sole driver of a business, the sole reason for its existence? Obviously not, but unfortunately in the same way that too many elected officials give priority to their own greedy political ambitions over the public good, too often business leaders have ruthlessly placed profits above everything else. To truly realize a healthy and more effective market-based economy, businesses must not only seek to maximize profits, but also strive to make a positive contribution to society. Accordingly, if in its quest for profits a business causes more harm than benefits to society or to its customers, it either needs to make adjustments to its business model, should transition to more a positive commercial endeavor, or go out of (or in drastic cases be forced out of) business.

Numerous examples of less-than-honorable businesses could be given, but here we give three:

- The most extreme example is the illicit drug business. The disastrous and failed war on drugs has spawned a criminal global business that has caused incalculable damage to our country and countries south of our border. Millions of our fellow Americans with life-destroying addictions are sending billions of dollars every year to country-controlling drug cartels, fueling unimaginable crime and corruption from Mexico on down. This in turn has caused an exodus of desperate migrants to our southern border; men, women, and children who would rather take their chances with a perilous journey and our immigration system than face the hellish (and too often deadly) prospect of staying in their own country. Those engaged in the illicit drug industry, whether in manufacturing, distributing, or selling (pushing), are making big money without regard to how many lives they destroy and the damage they do to our society and those of many other countries. This criminal industry must be eliminated, and the only way to achieve this is to remove any possibility of profit. With no way to make money, the business collapses and the war on drugs is won, plain and simple. The collapse of the illicit drug business would among many other things greatly reduce drug addictions and wasted law enforcement resources in our country. Nationwide it would make neighborhoods presently plagued with drug crime more attractive for economic development. It would also be a huge first step to solving illegal immigration, taking on democracy-destroying corruption throughout the hemisphere, and starting down a path of possibilities and prosperity for the entire region.

- The second example is the fossil fuel industry, whose leaders have long been aware of the terrible effects of burning of fossil fuels on people’s health and the Earth’s natural environment. They have shamelessly turned climate change into a self-serving culture war issue through misinformation and denial, the health of the planet be damned. They have enlisted unscrupulous politicians and media allies to spread doubt about the dangers of artificially accelerated global warming, and to drum up resistance to sustainable energy. Let there be no mistake: powerful vested interests want to keep the world overwhelmingly dependent on fossil fuels so as to maintain their highly lucrative business model, according which we are all forced to regularly and perpetually buy their products—even if the burning of which very possibly propels the planet into a horrific climate-changed world for our children. “It’s all about the business model, stupid”. The fossil fuel industry needs to transition to being part of the solution, instead of the source of the problem. May they contribute in earnest to helping us quickly realize a non-fossil fueled future.

- The third example is the “news” media companies and their zero-principles commentators. Instead of objectively presenting the facts and principled opinions, their (sadly) lucrative business model is based on emotion manipulation, inflaming the culture wars, and getting their audience hooked on rage-inducing nonsense. They exacerbate the country’s divisions regardless of the damage it does to our democracy. As the Solutions Party has proposed, certifying and grading journalists and news organizations, and providing targeted subsidies so they can focus on facts and not on profits, could go a long way to ending the national disgrace that these media companies have become.

Two Proposed Steps Forward

It is evident that businesses that place profits above the public good can cause immense damage, such as saddling millions with life-altering addictions, ruining the natural environment, and weakening democracy. In the same way we need to rethink politics and government, a new emphasis on the social responsibility of private enterprise is needed. To achieve this, the Solutions Party proposes the following two ideas:

Idea 1) Put into place a system that objectively scores a company’s ethics, in particular its contribution to society, on a scale of plus or minus (+/-) 100. Ideally such a system would be automated, and set up to analyze information from numerous sources. The automated system would then generate an overall “ethics and contribution score.” Categories for evaluation could include:

• Effect on their goods or services on their customers (health, quality of life, etc.)
• Effect of their business on the environment
• Effect of their business on society as a whole
• Treatment of employees
• Customer support
• Transparency and honesty in their conduct
• Wage gap between lowest and highest paid employees
• Percentage of goods or services that are tied to domestic employment
• Contribution to society in other ways (addressing social issues, donations to charity, etc.)
• Others as deemed necessary

Depending on the exact nature of a business, not all of the evaluation categories would necessarily be applicable. But in all cases, the applicable categories would each be assigned a score, and then an overall grade could be calculated by a simple average. Categories in which a business has chronically lower scores would be given increasing weight over time, lowering the overall grade and thus encouraging efforts to improve those areas where the business falls short. This overall grade could be posted on product packaging or at the places of business, similar to a restaurant sanitary grade. The evaluations would be available online so that anyone could view a business’s set of scores in the different categories, and make purchasing decisions accordingly. A consumer may choose for example to purchase a product that has high “Made in America” and environmental scores, even if it is more expensive than a similar item produced by an overseas company with lower scores in these categories. Business with lower grades would be in danger of losing customers, investors, and good employees, so constantly striving to improve the overall grade would be seen as crucial to longterm viability. 

If a business were not satisfied with its scores in the applicable categories, it could pay a fee for an independent and recognized committee to conduct a review. If the committee found that the automated scores were not as accurate as they could be, updated scores could be published and the committee’s feedback could be used to tweak and improve the automated system.

Idea 2) Establish an annual International Business Day. The idea is to commemorate the role business plays in creating prosperity, teach and encourage children around the world about the possibilities of eventually starting their own businesses, and serve as a highly visible reminder that businesses are expected make positive contributions, not just money. On this day, awards could be given to exemplary businesses, and conversely particularly egregious ones could be inducted into a “Hall of Shame.”

Implementing these two ideas could set higher standards for businesses to adhere to, and would give them a strong incentive to do so. May all businesses truly contribute to Making America Greater Than Ever.