OUR SON wants to sell his expensive car to buy a van for work. He has been doing labouring in a rough part of town and has had numerous offers from obvious drug dealers, proffering cash on the spot. This may get him the best price, but is it ethical to sell the car to drug dealers?
He may sell his costly wheels with a clear conscience. Marketplace ethics do not enjoin us to sell only to people we esteem. Neither House of Fraser nor the Co-op requires proof of virtue from its customers.
Both routinely sell blue jeans and bibelots to people who’ve no doubt done dreadful things; neither bothers to check the police records of its customers. If you aspire beyond shopping-centre morals, you should not sell someone the instrument with which he means to do harm — a gun to a deranged man with murderous intentions, for example. By this standard, some criticised IBM for selling South Africa computers that the company had reason to believe would be used to administer apartheid. But this taboo cannot be infinitely extended to more casual connections. A shopkeeper opposed to the Iraqi war may honourably sell shampoo to Tony Blair, although it could be argued that without good grooming, he’d be reluctant to appear in public to pursue that lamentable policy.
Your son’s situation is akin to this latter example. He is not certain that these fellows are drug dealers, and even if he were, their illicit activities are not directly connected to motoring in style. Thus he is free to make the sale, as is the local petrol dealer to fuel up the Caddie.
One caution. Your son may be in legal jeopardy if he accepts ill-gotten gains. Before closing the deal, he should consult a lawyer.
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The Ethicist originates from The New York Times Magazine.