Social issues are things along with matters that may indirectly or directly have an effect on few or all members of a given society. Society in this case is a group of human beings living together in some geographical location. These issues are partaken to be troubles involving controversies correlated to decent standards, or both at the same time. In general society, as in many countries in the world, religion plays an important role regarding many issues also many voters choose leaders based largely on morality in relation to these issues. These issues will lead to virtues which are translated to knowing who we really are.
All this will further depend on the roles we play in life and the virtues that count the most are those that help us along the way. This is why many people engage in activities that help them survive. These are things like business and other related income-earning activities.
Living conditions
I will look at housing and see how its affordability creates a social issue in a community. I see housing as business and as quoted “business involves the exchange of services for money, making money, and dealing with other people’s needs and demands” in the book ‘A better way to think about Business’ (page 69). I am interested in housing affordability because it involves all different levels of humankind. It touches on the poor, the middle, and the rich in a given society. It is in the housing sector where we can be able to know or gauge the financial position of an individual. I found out that the poor are the most affected by this issue; they live in houses situated in filthy environments. They try to live contented but they suffer silently since they know that they can’t afford to live in affluent areas.
I compare this with the situation I found. It was one day when I was looking for a rental house; I moved into an apartment that had been evacuated not long then more than two days ago. To me, it was a new apartment but the previous owners had left behind a damp, shabby house. The landlord did not even make an effort of cleaning since he knew that it could not take long before another person will come looking for a cheap house to live in.
This happened to be me since I could not afford the rent of an expensive apartment. Housing prices went up generally, many people could not afford a house, this included renting and owning. In view of the fact that I am an international scholar from China and depended on my parents to pay for my living cost, I could only afford a cheap house. Descent houses if built by the property owners in no filthy environment, my action of staying in the house without any ado would have created a value that would be important to both of us. Descent houses if built by the property owners.
The suffering of the poor
These issues affected me and still do because I had the first-hand experience in the issue of housing conditions. It is said and as I saw that poor housing conditions are making people sick. Links have been shown between poor housing standards and increased rates of skin, ear, and respiratory tract infections and diarrhea. I saw that infections resulted in stunted growth, low development, and increased susceptibility to diseases like rheumatic fever; such conditions are not that rampant in the housing areas that are occupied by the rich in the society, it really looked a disgrace that I could still see such conditions comparing it to rich countries (Flap & Henk, 1999).
This I realized was the virtue of the landlord since he was also involved in doing business. Their business had no business virtues that are explained on page 69 of the book “a better way to think about business”. The business virtues explained are the virtue of honesty, fairness, and trustworthiness. Thus their business was only for self-interest and of no fairness.
Virtues of a business
I found out that the issue of affordable housing as a form of business was done without caring, it was done without the basic concern of others, and the fact that you should be useful to yourself and to others did not apply to the housing business situation. They did their business without sympathy to the health of the needy. In the book “a better way in thinking about business” (77) caring is brought out as a term that gets executive hearts beating faster the way the competition and the profit motives do.
Much of the undistinguished images of compassion have to do with the overly military and otherwise macho metaphors that have dominated so much of business thinking in this century and the relegation of caring roles to women who stayed at home (Carroll,1979). Caring, of course, is not incompatible with corporate thinking thus I felt the landlords were out to make easy money since no concern was taken on the way we lived our life in the filthy affordable houses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, responsibility should be given priority in any effective business. The three virtues should be looked at to create a feeling of a win, win situation. This would reduce the risk of people contracting diseases in the filthy environment contrasting to the fact that the landlords living in beautiful mansions.
References
Barney, J. B. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17 (1): 99-120.
Carroll, A. B. (1979). A three-dimensional theoretical reproduction of shared social concert. Academy of Management Review, 4(4), 497-505.
Flap, Henk. 1999. formation and proceeds of communal capital: A new study program. The Tocqueville Review.20(1): 5-26
Homer-Dixon, T. (2006). The positive aspect: disaster, imagination, and the renewal of civilization. Toronto: Vintage Canada.
Van der Linden. (1982) Unlawful resident Settlement improvement: Improvement and Amsterdam: The organization for environmental Studies and Urban and Regional Planning of the Free University.