How Good Policies and Business Ethics Enhance Good Quality of Life

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxiv

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2. Social Sciences and Business Ethics

   • Alex C. Michalos

   Pages 1-4

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3. Business Ethics and the Quality of Life

   • Alex C. Michalos

   Pages 5-11

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4. The Costs of Decision-Making

   • Alex C. Michalos

   Pages 13-25

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5. Efficiency and Morality

   • Alex C. Michalos

   Pages 27-33

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6. Rationality Between the Maximizers and the Satisficers

   • Alex C. Michalos

   Pages 35-51

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7. The Loyal Agent’s Argument

   • Alex C. Michalos

   Pages 53-61

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8. Moral Responsibility in Business, or Fourteen Unsuccessful Ways to Pass the Buck

   • Alex C. Michalos

   Pages 63-80

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9. A Case for a Progressive Annual Net Wealth Tax

   • Alex C. Michalos

   Pages 81-110

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10. Militarism and the Quality of Life

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 111-125

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11. The Impact of Trust on Business, International Security and the Quality of Life

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 127-153

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12. Ethical Considerations Regarding Public Opinion Polling During Election Campaigns

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 155-184

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13. Brief to the Ontario Cabinet Committee on North American Free Trade

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 185-196

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14. Issues for Business Ethics in the Nineties and Beyond

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 197-212

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15. Observations on Performance Indicators and Performance-Based Management in Public Administration

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 213-233

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16. The Integration of Public Policy-Making with Outcomes Measurement

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 235-250

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17. A Handful of Sand in the Wheels of Financial Speculation

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 251-271

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18. Ethics Counselors as a New Priesthood

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 273-292

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19. Observations on the Proposed BC—STV Voting System

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 293-296

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20. Ancient Observations on Business Ethics: Middle East Meets West

    • Alex C. Michalos

    Pages 297-311

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This volume provides bridges from the social sciences to business ethics and from the latter to the quality of life, by connecting the research themes of quality of life, social sciences, including public policy-making, and business ethics or corporate responsibility. It builds on the premise that public policy making is essentially a species of good decision making, as explained in the first volume. It shows that, because most developed countries function as market economies whose governments depend on taxation to pay for their services and because a large proportion of government revenue comes from well-regulated, responsible corporations, the quality of people’s lives is highly dependent upon good public policies, taxation and business ethics. The volume presents and examines ethical/moral problems arising in market economies since the first century BCE, including the first appearance of the business case for business ethics, fourteen arguments concerning the neglect of business ethics, business ethics issues for the 1990s and beyond, the loyal agent’s argument, advertising, the importance of trust, public opinion polling, public program evaluation, and a critique of the relatively new monster of super-capitalism. In addition, it deals with connections among the concepts of efficiency, morality, and rationality related to decision making in general and public policy making in particular. Finally, it explains relationships between outcomes measurement and performance indicators in general and performance-based management in public administration, the taxation of net wealth and financial transactions.

• Business Ethics and Quality of Life
• Moral Responsibility in Business
• Business Case for Business Ethics
• Business Ethics in the Nineties and Beyond
• Advertising and Logic
• Impact of Trust on Business
• Monster of Supercapitalism
• Ethical Considerations in Evaluation
• Public Policy and Decision Making
• Measurement and Performance Indicators
• Management in Public Administration
• Taxation of Net Wealth and Financial Transactions

• University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, Canada

  Alex C. Michalos

Prof. Alex Michalos currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Brandon University. He is also the Director of Research for the Canadian Index of Wellbeing and Emeritus Professor in Political Science at his former institution, the University of Northern British Columbia. Michalos has published 24 books, over 100 refereed articles, and founded or co-founded seven scholarly journals. Among the seven, he is Editor in Chief for the Journal of Business Ethics, the most frequently cited journal in the world devoted to business ethics, and Social Indicators Research, the first scholarly journal devoted to quality of life research. He is married to Dr. Deborah Poff, President and Vice-Chancellor of Brandon University.

Policies and ethics