A family member has worked for fossil fuel companies and a weapons manufacturer that sells to the regime in Saudi Arabia. They justify it with "it's just a short while".
I personally don't see anything wrong with designing weapons that are later sold and used to kill innocent people. Or with manufacturing firearms that can be used to shoot innocent people. Or with designing cars that can be used to run over innocent people.
It's like wanting to ban guns because they can be used to murder innocent people
If my company is making a lot of its money selling weapons to people or groups that I have issue with, and Saudi Arabia is likely on that list (though I’d do some reading), then that’d be a problem for me.
And there’s only so much I’d excuse in others. If someone knowingly works for a company that makes “flesh-eating nano-machines” for third world dictators... I’m probably not going to want that person in my home.
My issue is that Saudi Arabia has a known habit of hurting innocent people and hence it is immoral to sell them weapons.
That said, there are products that I might have issue with across the board. Chemical or biological weapons might be examples, especially nasty ones.
Some companies lie to or otherwise deceive their customers. The new word on Theranos is that they might have been falsifying test results. If I’m a lab tech and I know that they are doing that, that’s a problem, as there’s the potential for real harm there.
A lot of them have student debt, multiple mortgages, multiple kids, a stay at home wife, and so on.
I don't pride myself of being a highly moral person, but even to me this seems pretty weak. I think I'm less shocked by "I don't care if I get people dead as long as I'm getting paid", than by "ordinarily I'm really concerned about the consequences of my actions, but since I got that extra mortgage I will get people killed if I have to". Somehow it seems the former is just imoral, whereas the latter is imoral and stupid.
But either way, these machines are being made and sold because the government demands it, and the workers provide it. Whether the workers are enthusiastic or not about doing it, well, they still show up to work, and the work still gets done.
If student loans, mortgages, health insurance, college tuition and so on weren't so expensive, then I think you'd have way less people queuing up to work for Raytheon.
PS: Go check out Raytheon's instagram. They seem to be prioritizing hiring kids straight out of college, who have an incentive to work for nearly any price. https://www.instagram.com/p/BiplewylpMp/?hl=en&taken-by=rayt...
Because he is just as immoral as the other guy, but he's dishonest about it.
The guy who just doesn't care as long as he gets his paycheck, I get him. His motives are clear. I can count on him to act in that manner.
The guy who rationalizes his decisions so he can sleep at night. He can do anything. He will come up with some story to make himself feel not so bad about what he does.
Thats a really long term for "government"