DukeEthicist: Fast cash

As ambitious Duke students, is our desire to make money in finance a good thing or a bad thing? Are there ways to make lots of money that are more ethical than others?

Heading off to Wall Street to pursue

Generic Script

a career in finance is no more or less ethical than alternate career paths our peers may choose. The broader issue at stake then is not what path we choose to follow, but our motivation for following it.

Wall Street provides us with several opportunities for a get-rich-fast career. Some Duke students are drawn to this lifestyle for the idea that they can be making six figures within a very short time. Is that wrong? I don’t think so – we don't fault professional athletes for jumping at their first opportunity to get a large paycheck. Yet, we still find ourselves looking down on “Wall Streeters.” Why?

Again, the issue at stake here is that, at the very nature of the job title “economist”, is the idea that people are making money, and usually an entire career, off of predicting someone else’s emotions. Financial trading is all about gambling on how people will react to certain situations, and as humans we are usually averse to such an idea. So, while going to Wall Street to make money and a career is no more or less ethical than anyone else’s career path, we must use caution and question our true motivation at the heart of such a decision.

The Duke Ethicist is a project of the Honor Council which responds to ethical questions posed by the Duke community. Our purpose is to provide a medium through which students may anonymously seek advice or spark dialogue. Got a question? Send it to dukeethicist@gmail.com, and look out for a response on our blog.