Unintended consequences.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff

This is the time of year that my business thinking turns to the subject of ethics, as this magazine co-sponsors the annual Colorado Ethics in Business Awards, which will be bestowed at an event March 8. We helped launch this effort back in the late 1980s, so it's not exactly a subject new to my area of interest.

It has always astonished me, however, how little our society knows about, or cares about, ethics, and how few people really get it. I am no expert, of course. Over the years I have given the subject a lot of thought, and I have written about it on many occasions.

Yet each time I try to define "ethics," even to myself, I have to elevate my thinking and squeeze out every morsel of brainpower. And then each time I read something from a so-called "ethicist," or discuss a case study of behavior, I see the shades of gray. And, of course, I often struggle with my own behavior, and question whether I made the right choice, said the wrong thing, didn't listen intently enough, or simply dropped the ball.

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If I have learned anything about ethics on my long search, internally and externally, it is that ethics isn't fixed; rather it is a constant struggle, a moving series of tests. Each situation, personal and business, presents its own challenges.

I have also learned what ethics is not. Oh, yeah, there's the usual: Enron, Joe Nacchio, Denver snow removal ("We're on our way!"), congressmen taking bribes, et al. Unfortunately, the list is long, and grows daily. No, this time I was thinking about something else.

Amendment 41 to be exact. Colorado voters approved this constitutional measure overwhelmingly on last November's ballot, mostly, I assume, because it had "ethics" in the title language and it restricted gifts to most government officials and their families to $50. This bit of foolishness--brought to you by the ironically named Coloradans for Sensible Ethics--has led to, among other "unintended consequences," a ban on college scholarships to the children of government employees. By the way, not just elected officials' children, but the offspring of highway workers and DMV clerks, too.

No one really intended this to happen, but that's what you get when you listen to guys like Jared Polis, the backer of the amendment and the head of the aforementioned "sensible" committee, and other guys way too rich and way too smug to just shut up.

I voted against this amendment, and not because I believe...