Tom Brokaw wrote in his 1998 book The Greatest Generation, "it is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced." He argued that these men and women fought not for fame and recognition, but because it was the right thing to do. My father and uncles were there.. two part of the D-Day invasion, one missed it .. his bomber having been shot down earlier he was sitting in a German POW camp.
I thought of this the other day when listening to a netcast where some were debating the use of an accounting maneuver that, while legal is questionable in the moral sense. It allows a US company to transfer large sums of it's earnings to offshore banks and therefore not pay US tax on it. Corporations making billions of dollars paying insignificant amounts.
What got me about this was not so much that they would do it .. but when one of the panelists suggested that a "good" company .. in this case they were talking about Google .. should just not engage in the practice. One of the others said that if the CFO would take such a step he would be replaced immediately for breach of fiduciary duty. I wondered what the members greatest generation would think of had they know they were hunkered down in foxholes across Europe so that some rich people .. exceedingly rich people could plot to defraud the government of income. How would they respond when asked their opinion about a person being fired not for doing wrong, but doing what most would consider morally proper.
I think they would just shake their heads
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