<p>Your personal past experiences don’t necessarily justify an ethical theory. In fact, it seems that your entire view of the business world has been tainted and all you are after now is retribution. Perhaps you are entitled to it, and perhaps so are your relatives, but I don’t think that vengeance is a valid basis for a mature ethical understanding of society.</p>
<p>I don’t think it matters whether McDonald’s is responsible for pollution and global warming and the recession and obesity and everything else that’s wrong with the world. I would know all of these things before accepting a position with them. Even if I had been ethically negligent and failed to acquire this knowledge before accepting the position, and found out after accepting, <em>that</em> would be my reason for cancelling… not that I had found a better position with Burger King. There is a difference.</p>
<p>And if companies want to maximize profit, you must understand there is a reason for this too. Maximizing profits is good for somebody. Perhaps it’s just one person, and one can wonder about whether this is right or wrong, but odds are that in any event it affects many people’s financial well-being… if the employer is generous, he will have less money to distribute, and if he is greedy, where will he make it up? If he is understaffed, who will make up the work? If he was overstaffed, why hire you in the first place… just for your benefit? And what about the other applicants?</p>
<p>There are more ethical issues at work here than you’re letting on. If the company has literally no problem with your not working there, in which case it’s ethically acceptable to cancel the acceptance, <em>all you have to do is to tell them the truth and they will let you go</em>. Whether they go by the numbers or have bleeding hearts, there’s no reason for them to lie to your face about something like that. They either need you and will hold it against you or they don’t and they won’t.</p>