Professor Elam

Friday July 18, 2014

We offer ACCT 5308, the required Ethics classin the spring which is required to sit for the Texas CPA exam.  The last two years I have begun a blog post that accumulates ethical lapses and misdeeds. It was amazing both times how many occurred. This sets the stage for our discussion of ethics, how we should behave and treat one another. 

Peggy Nooan was a speech write for PResident Reagan. Today she is a weekly columnist and blogger for the WSJ. In her comments this week, she quotes from David McCullough's book on Truman. Truman really did leave the White House dead broke. But unlike politicians after him, he was not for sale. He would not enrich himself by selling the Presidency. 

Here is Ms. Noonan's conclusion in her column.

Why are we talking about Harry Truman? You know.

We live in a time when politicians relentlessly enrich themselves. We are awed and horrified by the wealth they accumulate, by their use of connections, of money lines built on past and future power. It's an operation to them. They are worth hundreds of millions. They have houses so fancy the houses have names. They make speeches to banks and universities for a quarter-million dollars and call their fees contributions to their foundations. They are their foundations.

They grab and grub. They never leave. They never go home. They don't have a "home": They were born in a place, found a launching pad, and shot themselves into glamour and wealth. They are operators—entitled, assuming. They "stand for the people." They stand for themselves.

So I just wanted to note how it used to be, when leaders thought they had to be respectable. When they were respectable.

"Harry Truman, not a money-grubbing slob." Who, years ago, imagined that would come to be remarkable?