The word integrity is defined as "the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness." Ethics is defined as "moral principles that govern a person's or group's behaviour." But can such noble words be achievable in the world today? Before one can even attempt to answer such a question one must first ask who or what determines honesty, moral principles, and uprightness? In other words who determines what is right or wrong and where can these rights or wrongs be found in written documentation for all to read? Taking this into context and reflecting on the age old saying "what is good for the goose is good for the gander" still leaves a lot to be answered. Because again, we can ask what is good and who determines what is good?
My research and findings led me to conclude the following: in today's monetary system once there is a breakdown of community where fragmentation, competition, income inequality, power and wealth consolidation, dilution of the local population through migration, overpopulation, labour abuse, social stratification and a number of other fragmenting causing terms becoming the norm, integrity and ethics become a façade, a chasing after the wind. This in turn leads to greed and corruption.
The word greed is defined as an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. The word corruption is often defined as moral perversion or dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. Taking the conclusion from above into context and relating it to the five basic human needs framework of Abraham Maslow, one can further conclude that greed and corruption are the very foundation that drives our so called free-enterprise capitalist system. Today, people see money as the means to survival as oppose to seeing it for what it was created for - a tool to help improve the cumbersomeness of barter trade. Therefore, according to Jacques Rueff, "Money will decide the fate of mankind." And since money is not controlled by the community but by private institutions with private interests who thus in turn determine the fate of economies, integrity and Ethics become unachievable. "What's in it for ME", is the way people think as oppose to "What's in it for US - the community and environment."
Emilio Kalmera