Unedited
10/15/08

Predatory Business Practices

 Here, there are no ethics, no rules, only what you can get away with. The feelings of the customers play no role in the actions of the predatory business person. It does not matter to them if lives are disrupted; people are emotionally hurt or inconvenienced. A good example of a predatory business is a moving company. They agree to move households for a low price but the moving contract contains many provisions harmfully to the customer. Since the mover has the customer’s belongings they are in a position to demand what they want in compensation or they will not deliver the goods to the new home. This is a very common practice in the United States. There is an abundance of naive shoppers easily fall for a good sales pitch, promises, and an inexpensive price. It is a particularly viscous practice and the perpetrators of these scams are probably based out of the state and outside the reach of state courts and regulations.

The word predatory is a moral term with a long history of use describing behaviors a society condemns. This is because the world is building a civilization. Predation is part of the past not the future. To allow predation to flourish is to turn the clock back on civilization. Predation is a low brain function. The ethical person uses the more evolved prefrontal areas of the brain to guide their activities.