While attending an ethics panel discussion around 2016, an economics scholar made the comment “there is no ethics in business.” Lightbulb! Somehow, until that moment, I had not connected an overall systemic injustice with the many little wrongs and outright extraction efforts I had experienced with a number of local businesses.
For forty years we have labored under an economic theory that
values greed, an extreme form of greed that puts profits over people regardless
of the outcome on our ecosystem. A form of greed that aligns with destruction,
pollution, unregulated capitalism, constructed chaos, instability, defunding
government institutions that once sustained people at the lowest income levels
from deep poverty, and so on. This power over us, reinforced by disinformation campaigns funded by the very same overlords, deserves a critical review. Not to mention a kick in the ass, and soon.
Housing offers a foundational perspective on business ethics
and human life. An apartment rental company that claims it values honesty,
integrity and reputation should not employ staff that behave the opposite of
its employers’ values. A short list of bad behaviors include the following:
Making sexually suggestive comments to female applicants
Forcibly kissing female tenants
Dismissing complaints about lease violations while violating
the rules yourself, particularly rules concerning quiet enjoyment and cleanliness
Repeatedly deleting data resulting in assessment of fees
Unilaterally changing the terms of the lease
Collaborating with residents who share your political views
to harass those who do not
Generating a hostile environment
Retaliating against residents who report city code
violations like illegally operating an auto repair business on the property
Withholding lease renewals to implement increasing the rent
or adding new utilities to the total cost of renting
Polluting the property and stormwater system with toxic
chemicals and feces
I read this behavior as manipulative, unethical, immoral, narcissistic, misogynistic, and all other antonyms for “honesty, integrity and reputation.” It resembles what we see everyday in our national elected officials--sowing chaos, confusion, destruction, lies. The MAGA model of behavior where money and ego rule and the rest of us are their property. I'm sure the mind altering drugs help solidify their god-complex. I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find a MAGA manager here. I live in Christian Nationalist ground zero--Colorado Springs. We have four military installations; a network of Christian Nationalist 'churches' where the current mayor was a pastor and the police, sheriff, and other local officials hold their swearing-in ceremonies and funeral services; many pardoned January 6th insurrectionists; white supremacists; Nazi worshippers; and a guy who runs for local office on a resume that includes posting himself on the roof of a city parking garage with an AR-15 aimed at George Floyd protesters below. In collaboration with the police, of course. So, that's the 'local flavor' sprinkled on top of what every renter knows about renting these days from out-of-state foreign entities, like the property owner and employer of the MAGA management where I live.
The foreign LLC and its MAGA crew utilize the same pattern behaviors observed in private equities that are driving up the cost of everything; they own our health care, housing, pensions, jobs. In housing, the pattern is the same in every city: rent increases not related to amenities or improvements, lack of or minimal maintenance, adding fees for everything you can think of including the apps they use to generate the fees, use of algorithmic apps to flatten rent at the highest rate, threatening tenants with unjustified eviction, harassing tenants to force them to leave, adding utility charges that used to be included in rent, collaborating with local governments to gentrify downtown areas and build 'luxury' housing. If you know, you know and if you don't, you're part of the problem.
Still, there is a groundswell of sentiment and activity that sounds like we humans have finally had enough, and this dark era is coming to an end. November is almost here. Do not let yourself be silenced when it matters the most. Vote like your life depends on it, because it does. Then we reign in the greedy monsters with taxes on their wealth, regulatory and legal protections for consumers, banning foreign entities from owning property, redefining corporations as entities that cannot contribute to elections or ballot initiatives, and more, so much more. Maintaining a democracy requires constant, determined participation. It starts at home.
