Corporate Dishonesty

In addition to sharing dishonest descriptions of compensation for potential employees and intentionally giving dishonest paychecks that do not accurately reflect a worker's hours or rate, companies can absolutely lie to their consumer base.  It is not as if packaging for food, for example, is necessarily accurate: that a can, box, or bag says a certain quantity or weight of food is included does not logically entail that this is the case, and inaccurate packaging descriptions would not necessitate that the labeling was accidental!  While repetition alone does not signify greater significance, it is significant that Moses restates the initial revelation from Yahweh in Leviticus about misleading clients in matters of business when he recounts miscellaneous laws in Deuteronomy, adding that God actually hates people who engage in such practices.

Leviticus 19:35-36—"'"Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.  Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin.  I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt."'"

Deuteronomy 25:13-16—"Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light.  Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small.  You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.  For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly."

The Torah is not the only section of the Bible which credits God with literally hating those who are deceitful in this exploitative manner.  Psalms and Proverbs reiterate that lying is among the sins that incur divine abhorrence not merely of the sin, but also of the sinner.  Some lies are different, as will be examined below, but first, here are passages outside of Mosaic Law plainly declaring that God despises those who lie without cause or in inherently cruel ways, such as by making intentionally false accusations in a legal dispute (see Deuteronomy 19:16-21 for the assigned punishment):

Psalm 5:5-6—"The arrogant cannot stand in your presence.  You hate all who do wrong; you destroy those who tell lies.  The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, Lord, detest."

Proverbs 6:16-19—"There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community."

There is no shortage of ways that a businessperson/business could use lying as a tool to advance their own profits and other interests.  One is "shrinkflation", the practice of diminishing the size or amount of some product while selling it at the same price, or even at an increase, to appease the almighty bottom line or the shareholders.  The consumer pays the same or more for a dwindling product, and when numerous companies do this, purchasing power erodes en masse as necessities and luxuries alike become less and less accessible.  And what of dynamic pricing?  While shrinkflation is implemented by the organization creating a product to be sold, dynamic pricing allows an establishment like a supermarket, potentially a third party to the company responsible for the item and the consumer who buys it, to change prices on a whim.

Facilitated by electronic price displays (the information on the screens can be easily changed), these variable prices could be used to discriminate against people based on their gender, income level, race, and more, or to generate heightened profits based on the time of day of year.  For instance, on a particularly warm summer day, the price of bottled water or cold foods and beverages could be increased simply to see what customers will accept or not notice; moreover, during the peak of the day's heat in the early afternoon, prices could be amplified further.  The exact same product could unfairly squeeze more profit out of buyers based upon who they are and when they make the purchase in the day, month, season, or year.

Thus far, I have specifically focused on exploitative lies.  Not all lies are exploitative in intent or impact, whether financially or otherwise.  Very early in the Exodus narrative, we find an example of this:

Exodus 1:16-21—"The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiprah and Puah, 'When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the birthing stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.'  The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.  Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, 'Why have you done this?  Why have you let the boys live?'

The midwives answered Pharaoh, 'Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.'

So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.  And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own."

Acting as a malicious witness and using lies to persuade someone to pay for a product or service are universally wicked; lying in the manner of Shiprah and Puah is not.  Telling an untruth about events to spare someone from some worse, unjust fate is permitted, not in the sense that lying itself is morally good, but in that it is justified in particular situations, unlike truly believing in/promoting philosophical falsehoods, purposefully accusing someone of sins they have not committed, or telling a lie for financial gain.  Someone who lies for the hell of it or to take advantage of another person is hated by Yahweh, and this would necessarily include corporate figures who try to subtly steal from or shortchange their consumer base through dishonest claims about products or services, planned obsolescence, and so on.  Such swindling liars deserve to perish in the lake of fire, excluded from eternal life and thus from conscious existence, unless they repent (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Ephesians 5:5, Revelation 21:8, 22:15).

Trying to deprive consumers of fair prices is also likely not the only thing an oppressive company does as it disregards anyone but executives, shareholders, and perhaps certain managers.  Such a company, if large and influential enough, would probably neglect necessary precautionary measures to save the lives of workers (Exodus 21:28-29), discourage a day of rest (Exodus 20:8-10, 23:12, Deuteronomy 5:12-15), refuse to pay workers before the next sunset after their shift (Leviticus 19:13, Deuteronomy 24:14-15), withhold livable compensation, and so on.  It is improbable that it would ever stop at relying on misleading product descriptions.

But in an era where typical consumers can easily feel the devastating confinement and cruelty of corporate greed all the more thanks to economic instability, recognizing the stark relevance of the Biblical injunctions against dishonest tactics in business should be all the more simple a thing.  Executives terminate the employment of even longtime, professionally valuable workers to save the cost of their compensation and turn around, seized by the same greed, to take as much money as possible from buyers by doing practically anything they can get away with.  Lying is not always morally erroneous, but this is not so with predatory business practices meant to extract extreme profits from consumers at the expense of honest dealings.  The consequences of this are disastrous.