One of the four purposes of business is Products. Quoting from my book, A Christian Theology of Business Ownership, I wrote this: “Simply stated, the first purpose for business is this: Business exists to provide a means to produce products that enables the community to flourish.”
When businesses aggressively market their products or services to those who cannot afford them, they are violating this principle. Case in point is the University of Southern California (USC), who pushed a $115,000 online degree in social work, knowing full well that their graduates would earn salaries that would not allow them to pay off their student debts.
Not only is the degree way over-priced compared to other schools in Southern California, but the Wall Street Journal article also reports they used aggressive marketing tactics to get people into the degree program who couldn’t afford it.
This behavior is antithetical to how a Christian business owner should behave. Not only should our products and services be reasonably priced for the intended target market, but they should enable the consumer to flourish and be better off after consuming our products and services.
USC took advantage of their students for financial gain and injured the lives of their students. This is a violation of God’s purposes for business.
Bill English, Publisher
Bible and Business
