You are a single mother of two, working as a secretary in the offices of Eagle L

Question

You are a single mother of two, working as a secretary in the offices of Eagle Loan company. It is hard work but pays reasonably well. It provides you just enough to get by while you try to finish a college degree and qualify for a better job.

Eagle is not a very pleasant place to work, and this is not just because of the tedious nature of the job. The company exists for the sole purpose of making high-interest loans to people whose income and/or credit histories would never get them past the door of more conventional loan agencies.

That in itself is not unreasonable. This is a loan market that needs to be served, and the high interest is only commensurate with the high risk that such loans carry. What bothers you is that Eagle particularly targets older people for home Equity loans. Typically, these are individuals who have worked long and hard to build an equity in their homes. These homes sometimes need expensive repairs.

Eagle works hand-in-glove with so-called “tin men,” home repair contractors who go door to door or work the phones to persuade the homeowners to put up their homes as security for home repair loans. Often the repair work is shoddy and overpriced, and in any case, the loans tend to be more than these people can handle.

So they often lose their homes, or, at best, they are saddled with huge repayment burdens for inferior or unnecessary repairs. These people usually don’t have the resources or the know-how to fight back in court, and in the rare case that they do, Eagle can more than match them.

Your office is right next to the boiler room. It really bugs you to listen to the salespeople relentlessly pressing their high-pressure tactics. Then, later on, you hear them laughing it up about their pathetic victims.

Your boyfriend is always lecturing you about this. “You’re an accomplice,” he says. “You’re aiding and abetting this fraud. It’s immoral for you to work there.” But you realize it might not be that easy for you to get another job that pays as well. And after all, you’re not the one doing the selling; you’re not the one doing the shoddy repair work or foreclosing on the homes.

Is it immoral for you to work there? Explain and justify how you think the young woman in this case should deal with her dilemma. (in 500 words)

Explanation / Answer

The business of Eagle Loan Company is legal and valid as they are giving loans to high risk customers at high risk rates. However, their method of doing business is dubious and immoral. Instead of providing loans to people who need it, they are duping the customers by artificially creating the need for the loan through tin-men and knowingly usurp their homes

I agree with the young woman in the case and find it to be immoral to continue in the institution as it targets those customers who are mostly unlike to repay. Their method of operation is a fraudulent. The revenue generation should be through interest collection rather than usurping the security asset (in this case homes). The sales person have no sympathy or empathy for the customers to whom they are selling and are laughing at their pains. Even more painful for me is that the customers are the old persons who have invested their life long savings on their homes. Ethically, the company is wrong in all aspects though their business model is legal.

Technically, even if I or anybody is not part of these fraudulent operation, we as an employee of this company indirectly helping the fraud to happen and also till we don’t blow the whistle or get out of the company, we would be the accomplice. Hence quitting the company and blowing the whistle will be the best action which I would like to recommend and hope this company does not give rise to clones.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse Y
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.