A function of the Faculty Affiliate Network is to bring speakers into college and university classrooms. At a business ethics class at NC State, Daren Bakst spoke about the ethical issues of economic development takings from a business leader’s perspective. He argued that while the “default” ethical thing to do is the maximization of profit, there are some situations where this is not ethical, including situations such as working with a local government to seize private property for a business’s own gain. When a business is complicit in violating the rights of others, this is unethical, and there is absolutely no need to balance this act against profit maximization to determine what is ethical. Karen Palasek, the director of the FAN, spoke at High Point University on “The intersection of theory and practice: presenting information and analysis for public policy use” for the class in Free Enterprise run by Prof. Stephanie Crofton.
