User:Joshnf

The Facts Of The Case

The Internal Revenue service has been in the news lately after some disturbing things were discovered about practices within the organization. One of these practices brought to light was wasteful spending. The public learned of a series of training videos that cost $50,000 to produce. Among other lavish purchases, the IRS misused funds intended for hiring enforcement employees on a 4 million dollar conference including luxury hotel rooms. In May of 2013, IRS official Lois Lerner acknowledged that IRS employees had inappropriately singled out Tea Party groups who were applying for tax exempt status for intense scrutiny. A senate oversight committee has launched several investigations into the practices of the IRS.

My Conclusions

It is obvious that it was unethical in all cases to allow personal politics interfere with internal practices. During our group discussion, everyone agreed that these actions were wrong. The group discussion did not raise questions about when or if similar actions would be appropriate. I would like to explore more about why people do things like this even though they know the potential consequences. At what point does the risk outweigh the reward. I would also like to know more about the circumstances around the scandal. Were actions like these common knowledge among employees? Were they instructed by supervisors?

Future Environment

In my opinion, as technology advances people will become more and more social. I believe moral standards will become more blurry and things that are considered immoral by todays standards will become either less immoral, or even socially acceptable. I believe that cases like this one will be more frequent and people will tolerate infractions more and more.

Future Scenario

In the future, there may be technological advances that will serve as a guard against things like this happening. Conversely, when new security measure are implemented, new ways of circumventing them are discovered. The future morality of society lies with the morality of todays society. It is imperative that ethical practices are in place now and are continued to be in the future.