World War II Unethical Business Practices

Collins 5

Patrick Collins
Ms. Vyse
English II Honors
4/15/16
Unethical Business Practices in All My Sons and World War II Would you use unethical business practices such as selling defective parts just so you could get rich off of it? Many companies used unethical business practices in World War II to make huge profits. These huge profits generated by these companies came at the expense of others. Businesses did not care if lives would be lost or if it would make America loss the war, they just cared about money. In the play All My Sons, Joe Keller also knew that his decisions could cost lives, but he still decided to commit actions that did cost lives anyway for his business. In the play All My Sons the author, Arthur Miller, provides the

In the play, All My Sons, Joe Keller also makes a profit from the war, even though he sold defective parts to the government. ?Keller: You wanted money, so I made money? (Miller 76). Keller tells this to his wife why he did it because he wanted to make money. He even says that his family wanted the money and they never complained about it. Keller?s actions shows how people?s greed took advantage of the situation to make as much money as possible off the war. People see that the biggest war in the history of the world is going on so they take advantage of the situation by not giving the government discounts, and sometimes even raising the prices of some goods. World War II produced many billions of dollars for the already rich one percent while leaving the government broke. ?Whereas the First World War produced $28.5 billions of net profits and created 22,000 millionaires, the Second practically doubled the ?take:? enriching the monopolists by $56 billions ? so far? (Thorne 190). Over $56 billion dollars was made from World War II and most companies used unethical business practices to get that money. Businesses did not care that America was in the biggest war yet or that America needed supplies to win the war. Businesses still charged the government normal prices and even raised prices in some cases to raise their profits. ?The 200 largest steel corporations more than doubled their annual profits during the war? (Thorne 190). Even in Germany, the country that lost the war, companies made loads of money. ?IG Farben was the most powerful German corporate cartel in the first half of the 20th century and the single largest profiteer from the Second World War? (AHRP). Businesses made billions of dollars off of World War II mostly using unethical practices to get all of that money and Keller also used unethical practices to make