We hear a lot about business ethics issues in the United States and yet our businessmen and women are some of the most ethical business practitioners anywhere in the world. The transparency, integrity and accountability in American business is not found anywhere else in the world. With all the disclosure, over regulation, lawsuits and government forms it would be difficult to call any American businessperson unethical. Yet, we find that the mass media hysteria, incited by folks who do not understand commerce has cheated the positive American opinion about business ethics.

The truth of the matter is that ethics in business, the military, sports, government or even the nonprofit sector in the United States is a reflection of the overall ethics of the average human in our civilization. For someone to say that people are less ethical in business than let's say it law-enforcement; this would be a failure to adequately observe the reality of the situation.

Many people believe that our court systems and lawyers are of the highest ethical standards, but it simply is not so. Even the fine folks in government who are regulating the business community have to draw from this same population base. This is why the ethics in Government are no better than those in business; perhaps Government ethics are worse because there is less oversight. Is this good or bad? It is neither, it just is.

For us to discuss business ethics properly we must be honest with ourselves, we cannot simply label all business people as crooks, shysters or con men. Unfortunately it seems that many people in our society are pointing fingers at the business community, when in actuality they should be looking in their mirrors. In this book we will discuss and contemplate the reality of human psychology and ethics and look into the abuses of power in government, government regulators and how over regulation to prevent criminality in business is a self-fulfilling prophecy and how we are making criminals out of hard-working men and women and our brightest entrepreneurs.

As a businessperson and a Franchisor, I have been critical of over regulation at every level; Associations, City, County, State, Federal and International and more often than not government agencies, Trade Organizations and Associations are used by companies to attack their competitors. In fact, that in itself is unethical and once again proves that you cannot regulate morality and if you allow those who will point fingers to assist in the abusing of power you will undermine the inherent integrity of free-markets between buyers and sellers. I hope you will enjoy this discussion and the thoughts on business ethics and I thank you for reading this article, as it is one of my first on this subject. Perhaps this topic is of interest to propel thought in 2007?