The essence of Business Culture is linking Profit with what is Right, Good, and Beautiful (Truth, Goodness, Beauty).Therefore, cultured business combines the Wisdom of a philosopher, the courage of a soldier, and the talent of a businessperson. We cannot use the freedom of the market economy to justify dumping face masks. Even in an economy freely governed by supply and demand, the government’s regulating hand is still needed when necessary. Of course, that regulation must not be excessive, as in the former Soviet Union. Part of the reason the Soviet Union collapsed was that its government sought to control and regulate every transaction and every kind of goods, down to each bar of soap (through state subsidies). In a market with such an enormous volume of goods circulating, concentrating everything in one place for a single state to coordinate would inevitably cause overload, breakdown, and collapse. As the trend shifts from “Centralize” (centralization) to “De-centralize” (decentralization), empowering participants in the “system” to help operate it, the ideal is to function like Nature. In Nature, no “headquarters” commands every activity. In fact, if such a command center existed, it would certainly break down under the tremendous scale of natural activity. In nature, every organism, plant, animal, and “part” acts as a “sensor,” a “commander” operating in harmony with the shared “whole.” All as One. However, the level of consciousness of human civilization has not actually reached that state. Through ignorance, people have not understood that “All is One” or learned to operate as One. So the state’s role in control and regulation when needed remains necessary. Market freedom therefore cannot mean doing whatever one wants, even if the law does not prohibit it. When our fellow humans are endangered by illness, creating scarcity in a product that could help them to some extent is Not Right. Indirectly restricting others’ chance of survival is Not Good. And making money from the pain of our compatriots or humanity is Not Fair Play. The beginning of the Coronavirus arose from the ignorance of (a portion of) humanity. The way people subsequently behave toward one another further demonstrates ignorance, lack of wisdom, and lack of goodwill toward each other.Not Right, Not Good, Not Beautiful, yet still done for Profit, still selling masks at extortionate prices: that is Uncultured Business. Or, if it has a culture, it is not the culture of Entrepreneurs but of dishonest traders or profiteers. And such profiteers deserve only contemptuous forms of address.
