I would try to get some cash out of the person, on the
spot. Otherwise, I'd let it go. It's a very realistic scenario
for southern California. Frankly, it's not worth the time
and hassle of trying to follow up with any sort of legal
action.


Next dilemma:

You are the manager of a retail clothing store
located inside of a shopping mall in the heart
of Beverly Hills. One day, in walks a very famous
actress. She spends a good deal of time browsing
the store. You have hidden cameras throughout
the store, and to your amazement, you see that
she is stealing item after item as she strolls around
the store. After some time, she makes a $500
purchase and proceeds to leave the store. After
she is outside, you go after her and confront her.
She nervously apologizes, hands you the stuff
back, with the excuse that she meant to buy them.

As she hands you the stolen items, she puts
2 hundred dollar bills on the palm of your hand.

Do you keep the money, and let it go? Or not?

Actually, which actress it was would influence me a lot more than the money. I consider myself to be a moral person, but I definitely let beautiful women get away with more in my place of work than I do men or women I'm not attracted to. I'm sorry to say it, but if it was Winona Ryder, I would take the merchandise back, tell her to keep the money, and slobber all the way back to the store (I just saw "Girl Interrupted" last night. Yummy.)

On a similar vein: You are a man and you've just moved in to a new apartment. You discover that the previous tenant somehow installed a one-way mirror in the apartment next door and you have a front row seat. You guessed it. The view is of your beautiful next door neighbor's bed room. You somehow know for sure that you will never get caught and that she will never know if you don't tell her. So do you tell her or take up permanent residence in front of the mirror?

Fox - Sorry, I should have been more specific.
The actress is Kathy Bates. Are you still slobbering all
the way back to your shop?
.................................

Here's the dilemma you posted:

On a similar vein: You are a man and you've just moved in to
a new apartment. You discover that the previous tenant somehow
installed a one-way mirror in the apartment next door and you have
a front row seat. You guessed it. The view is of your beautiful next
door neighbor's bed room. You somehow know for sure that you will
never get caught and that she will never know if you don't tell her.
So do you tell her or take up permanent residence in front of the mirror?

I leave the mirror up for a week. (I am assuming that the wife will never catch me either).

The estate tax. Thank you, Azure, for the info.

2003 - $1 million - 49%
2004 - $1.5 million - 48%
2005 - $1.5 million - 47%
2006 - $2 million - 46%
2007 - $2 million - 45%
2008 - $2 million - 45%
2009 - $3.5 million - 45%
2010 - Estate Tax Completely repealed
2011 - $1 million - 50%
2012 - $1 million - 50%
2013 - $1 million - 50% and so on...

Dec 31, 2010, your terminally ill father is in an irreversible coma, he will certainly die within days even with the respirator he is currently on. You are one of 14 children and 67 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. Your father always loved his children and grand children and hated paying taxes. He also failed to protect his assets from an inheritance tax. His estate is wiorth $3 million. If he dies tonight each of his descendents will recieve $30,000, he dies tomorrow that will be $20,000. The last words he spoke before entering the coma was "'Don't let that thieving Uncle Sam get a penny of my money." You can pull the plug with no risk of being caught. Do you do it?

Well, I would like to join the game, if you guys don't mind.



So the question comes down to would I kill a family member for 10,000 bucks even if he said it's okay?
Hell no.

Actually my family went through something similar. My grandmother on my dad's side had a stroke a couple of years ago and was in a coma. She had always told us that she would like us to take her off life support if something like that happens, because she doesn't want to be a burden to her kids and she doesn't want to suffer. Well, my family didn't obey her wish and there was a family member at the side of her hospital bed every other day. She passed away last October, after being on life support for more than a year and a half.

Here's my moral scenario, which also happens to be a true story:

You are a consultant working for a large bio-tech company. The company recently went public and its stocks are sky-rocketing due to a promising project that they are working on, except YOU know that this "promising project" is just something the executives cooked up and is absolutely worthless.

But, on the other hand, the company is also planning on building plants for low-cost AIDS drugs that targets markets in developing countries, which could actually turn out a huge profit AND help people.

Obviously, these information are confidential.

Do you then go public with the information risking your professional reputation, personal safety, and the prospect of cheap AIDS drugs for poor people?
or
Do you just keep your mouth shut?

(FYI, it's not an American company so I don't think anyone here will lose their retirement fund over this.)

Honesty is the best policy. It could also hurt my personal credibility as a consultant to lie for this company, and I hate to say it, but my livelihood and me eating is more important that people with AIDS. I'm utility-maximizing; maximizing my own utility.

Next:
Your friend calls you and wakes you up at 4AM claiming that he had just been abducted by aliens. You are friends for other reasons than beliefs in extra-terrestrials. While he believes in contact with other-worldly beings, you find the whole idea to be absurd. So much so, that you don't really like to bring up the conversation. Do you take him to be serious and listen to his spiel as a good friend, do you tell him to wait until a decent hour of the day, or do you just not bother to hear him out and hang up because it's completely absurd and you have something better to do (like sleep)? Or would you do something else?

I would listen to his story, and act like I was taking it seriously.
As his friend I would grant him that. I would ask him where he
thinks he is, and then as soon as we hung up I'd drive to his
house and bust him.

Next:

You are driving home from work, on your lunch hour.
You are in a rental car, while your car is being serviced.
As you turn the corner, a couple of blocks from your
house, out jumps a neighbor's dog, and you run him over.
You stop to see if he is okay, and you realize you have
killed him. The neighbor that he belongs to is a real jerk,
and you know he would try to sue you and do anything
else to make your life tough, over this.

Nobody has seen what happened. You are not in your
own car, so there is little chance anyone would pin the
blame on you. What would you do in this situation?

I suppose the only moral thing to do is to tell your neighbor what happened, despite how ugly he is going to try and make the situation. If he wants to sue, it will only end up reflecting bad on him, not me. People try to file frivolous lawsuits all the time, and sometimes the best way to stand up to a bully is to call their bluff.

Up Next:

You're an attorney. You have clients. Whenever dealing with clients, some of your ethical obligations include 1) loyalty to the client's best interests, and 2) confidentiality, to keep the client's secrets.

Occasionally you do Wills for your clients. Yesterday, a husband and wife came in to your office and said they each wanted their Will done up, leaving everything they own to the other. You draft the Wills (which except for the individual names are 100% reciprocal), and they execute them. How lovey-dovey and sweet, huh?

Today, one of them stops by the office alone (it doesn't matter which one). "Shhhhhh!" they say, "don't tell my spouse that I stopped by to do this, but I want you to secretly draft me a new Will, revoking my old Will, in which I will now leave one-half of my assets to my spouse and the other half of my assets to my secret lover. This was my plan from the beginning..."

Assume for the purposes of this scenario, you are not able to talk them out of it, and that you live and work in a State where there is no spousal renunciation of Wills.

Now... in keeping with ethical obligations #1 and #2 outlined above at the start, you owe a duty of loyalty to the best interests of the client who is in the dark, having executed a reciprocal Will yesterday, thinking that their spouse did the same, who is going to get screwed; while you also owe a duty of confidentiality to the client who wants their Will secretly changed to the detriment of their spouse. And even if you refuse to do the new Will and that client goes somewhere else, you still owe that duty of confidentiality.

What do you do? Do you inform the one client they are getting screwed, to remain loyal to their interests? Or do you keep the other client's secret, to maintain the confidentiality?

This is a tough situation. After thinking about it a lot, I think I would go ahead and file the new will as requested. I think that my professional requirements would take precedence over my disapproval. (I have to assume that there is nothing illegal being done here.)

Here's one which came to me after the discussion about a pharmacist being required to fill a presciption as ordered:

You work at a convenience store late at night alone. A customer comes in to buy a Coke. You know this person is a brittle diabetic, and that a Coke will probably send the person to the hospital. The person, for whatever reason, is aware that sugar should be avoided but does not seem to care. The customer refuses to accept a diet Coke. There is no other place nearby where a Coke can be purchased. Do you sell the Coke or refuse?

My grandmother was a diabetic, so I have a lot of empathy
for those who suffer from this disease. I would cleverly
find a way to not sell the Coke to the person. I might
take it from him/her and say, "Oh goodness, the safety
seal on this is broken. Let me see if I can find a bottle that
hasn't been tampered with," and so forth....



Next dilemma:

You are a flight attendant, working in the first class section
of an airplane. Passengers are boarding the plane, and
lo and behold, on walks Rush Limbaugh. On a political
AND person level, you cannot stand him. Throughout
the flight you have no choice but to serve him. He is arrogant
and demanding. After he has deplaned, you see that he
accidentally left his wallet on board. You cannot help but
look inside. You find several bogus doctor's prescriptions,
along with a little plastic bag, containing some sort of pills.
(this is after his coming forward and admitting to a problem).

Do you take the story to the media? To the tabloids?
To the authorities? Or do you bite your tongue and say nothing?

Actually, this happened to my grandfather. The pharmacist assumed he was buying it for himself, but in reality he was getting it for me and my brother. (Whether or not you should be giving three-year-olds soda is a completely different ethical question.)

I would also wonder if he was going into shock, in which case the best thing to do is give him a Coke (if orange juice isn't available).

Terra

Terra, this thread is a game. Please check out this post for the rules on how to play: link.

Next Dilemma:

QUOTE

You are a flight attendant, working in the first class section
of an airplane. Passengers are boarding the plane, and
lo and behold, on walks Rush Limbaugh. On a political
AND person level, you cannot stand him. Throughout
the flight you have no choice but to serve him. He is arrogant
and demanding. After he has deplaned, you see that he
accidentally left his wallet on board. You cannot help but
look inside. You find several bogus doctor's prescriptions,
along with a little plastic bag, containing some sort of pills.
(this is after his coming forward and admitting to a problem).

Do you take the story to the media? To the tabloids?
To the authorities? Or do you bite your tongue and say nothing?

This appears to be a double-dilemma.

First, what am I doing digging into this guy's wallet? How do I recover from this lapse?

Second, how do I respond to the information that Limbaugh is offending - disregarding that it was ill-gotten?

Ok, I had a moral lapse, pawing into someone else's personal effects, simply because I could get away with it. This is a separate issue, and does not affect what I know know about Limbaugh. My weakness can be dealt with independently.

Morally, what are the stakes with the drug-violation information? I can maximize my vindictive opportunity, I can try to be the good Samaritan for Limbaugh, or I can just turn in or return the wallet.

Rush is obviously a guy with personal problems. I find him personally obnoxious, but I do not see him as a problem that 'needs taken out'. Because I know that he is in a personal bind, and that for Mr. Limbaugh to resolve his problems could well lead to large changes in him, I conclude that a positive gesture is a worthwhile disposition/investment of the opportunity presented to me.

I document everything in the wallet, with a notary public. I then call Limbaugh, explain that I have his wallet, that I know he is cheating, and suggest that he try harder. I lie, telling him the incriminating evidence fell out as I retrieved the wallet from the cushions.


I became disgusted with the choices America made following 9/11. Instead of retiring to Alaska (where Bush is particularly popular..) I took advantage of the generous immigration incentives offered by Panama, and became an expat.

Now it is 2010. The ascent of Conservatism and the Republicans is complete ... overwhelming. Hegemony and Globalization is reality in every corner of the planet. Religion is everywhere.

But something is wrong. Civil rights and the Constitution are strongly upheld. The environment is being protected ... alongside the 2nd Amendment, and hunting and fishing and subsistence lifestyles. America is building 16 new nuclear power plants, with 70 more on the drawing boards. We brought 40 magnetohydrodynamic emergency (short-life) generators online, pumping 2 gigawatts apiece. They burn powdered coal. Our own.

Foreign energy dependence has been slashed 21% in six short years. There have been - gulp - three valid state elections in the Middle East. The Palestinian Independence Party sits in the Knesset.

Do I go home? What do I tell everybody? What do I tell myself?

I became disgusted with the choices America made following 9/11. Instead of retiring to Alaska (where Bush is particularly popular..) I took advantage of the generous immigration incentives offered by Panama, and became an expat.

Now it is 2010. The ascent of Conservatism and the Republicans is complete ... overwhelming. Hegemony and Globalization is reality in every corner of the planet. Religion is everywhere.

But something is wrong. Civil rights and the Constitution are strongly upheld. The environment is being protected ... alongside the 2nd Amendment, and hunting and fishing and subsistence lifestyles. America is building 16 new nuclear power plants, with 70 more on the drawing boards. We brought 40 magnetohydrodynamic emergency (short-life) generators online, pumping 2 gigawatts apiece. They burn powdered coal. Our own.

Foreign energy dependence has been slashed 21% in six short years. There have been - gulp - three valid state elections in the Middle East. The Palestinian Independence Party sits in the Knesset.

Do I go home? What do I tell everybody? What do I tell myself?

Of course the glib answer to what I do is stop taking the mind-altering medication and wake up back in the real world, because of all the possible scenarios describing the outcome of the second Bush administration this is the least likely.

But in all honesty, yes I'd go home - somewhat humbled & chastened - and I'd tell everybody, and myself, that I'd been plain wrong all along and try to ask them, and myself, to live with that. While trying to bury the niggling sensation that it was all going to collapse around my ears at any moment, because I just couldn't shake the (by-now impossibly romantic) idea that means really do matter, and that an idyllic peacful world that can only be created at gunpoint isn't really worth having.

NEXT:
You are a senior figure in your government, and as part of your remit you have chosen to set standards on public behaviour - such as requiring fathers to take responsibility for their children - and you do this in part by setting them for yourself in the areas of personal probity in your office. In your private life you are a divorcee with grown-up children, and until quite recently you were having an affair with a married woman. She coincidentally publishes the main political magazine of your political opponents. She has had two young children, which you believe may be yours, but which she insists are her husband's - they are trying to patch up their marriage. Being a man of firm principle, you wish to establish the paternity of the existing infant and the child she currently carries one way or the other, so you can do the responsible thing and help to support it. She sees this as a threat to her fragile marriage, and opposes you. As part of that opposition, she releases documents that indicate that her child's nanny, an immigrant, was granted a visa to remain in the country permanently shortly after she asked you to examine the application form to make sure it was correctly completed. Being blind, you had to ask someone else to look at it for you. Things look bad, and you take a lot of flak in a generally hostile press, even though it seems that the junior civil servant who processed the visa application was overzealous once he or she heard you had looked over the application. An election looms, and your department, under your direction, is critical to the success of your party in securing re-election.
Do you resign your position?