Outsourcing

 «The problem of outsourcing morality is that it exacerbates the original problem of the absence of internal inhibitions or constraints. Everyone either will try to walk the fine line between legality and illegality (doing things that are unethical but technically legal) or will break the law while trying not to be caught. Breaking the law is not unique to today's commercialized societies. But what is unique is for people to claim that they have done everything in the most ethical manner possible if they have remained just barely on the right side of the law, or, if they have strayed into illegality, that is the business of others to catch them and prove they have broken the law. Internal check, stemming from one's own belief in what is moral and what is not, seem to play no role whatsoever. 

This is perhaps most obvious in commercialized sports, where the old-fashioned notions of fair play, which internalised acceptable conduct, have all but disappeared and have been replaced by behavior that, in some cases openly breaks the rules. Such behavior is fully accepted and even encouraged, since people believe that it is up to the referees alone to enforce the rules. Take the 2009 example of the famous soccer goal marked by hand by Thierry Henry, which allowed the French national team to qualify for the World Cup and sent the Irish team home. No one, from Henry to the last French supporter, denies that the goal was scored by hand, that it was illegal, and that is should not have been allowed to stand. But they would not draw the obvious consequences. In everyone's opinion the matter was not to be decided by Henry (say, by his telling the referee that the goal was illegal) or by his teammates (doing the same thing), but solely by the referee. Once the referee, not having seen how the goal was scored, has accepted it, the goal is as legal as can be, and there is no shame in celebrating it. Or even bragging about it.»

Capitalism, Alone, Branko Milanovic