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Originally Posted by sapiens
First, thanks for the response.
Second, I think that the ability to perform an act because of an absence of laws to the contrary, does not necessarily make that act a right.
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I don't understand this at all. I can see something not being right, but how isn't it "a" right? Who decides what things are rights and not in the absence of law, besides personal whim?
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Third, could you clarify a few things?
If there are no existing laws governing whatever morally reprehensible act they want to commit, they are free to do so? It was legal for German companies to use slave labor during Nazi rule. So, it was fine for the companies to do so because they have no moral responsibility? I disagree, but this is your position, correct?
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In Germany, it most certainly was. And if no other country where that company did business enacted laws forbidding countries doing business there who used slave labor, it would also be fine in those countries. Now, this might not be most profitable, however. A competitor could easily point out that company's use of slave labor, and if the business lost due to this was greater than the profit gained by using slave labor, it wouldn't make much sense for them to use slave labor.
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What if the government is unable limit those acts despite laws (inadequate enforcement)? If a corportations only motive should be profit, are they within their "rights" to perform those acts?
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Not if it's illegal. Just because a gov't can't enforce laws now, doesn't mean that that situation will always remain. And if a gov't is so inept that they are wholly unable to enforce laws for corporations, the corporation in essence becomes the gov't and makes their own laws.
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Because corporations are made up of people, people make the decisions, etc., does the same logic apply to people? (If there are no laws governing an act, you have a "right" to commit that act?)
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Homicide (the willful act of unlawfully killing a person) is illegal, and assumedly wrong. People are made up of cells, cells give people life, etc. So should it be illegal to "murder" cells?
A corporation does have people in charge, true. But it is something entirely separate from the people in charge of it. Now, the people themselves might balk at doing something that is legal but immoral, but then that employee is not doing his job properly.
And if there is no laws governing an act, people/corporations/whatever certainly do have a right to do it.