LIBE 467 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Volkswagen Beetle
Ford Pinto: An Ethical Analysis Behrooz Kianian A00930520
During the August of 1970 Ford Pinto was rushed into productio y Ford’s ew
president Lee Lacocca, his main target was that without a reliable alternative to
Japaese VW Beetle the Japaese would Capture the etire Aeria suopat
arket. Lacocca decided to order the development of Pinto, which was designed
within a short period of time, in order to compete with VW Beetle and to release the
1971 models. Due to the shortage of time the machines that make the car parts were
reated efore the ar was tested for safety. Laoa’s lak of oer for safety
resulted in faulty gas tank system that cost the lives of many especially Sandra
Gillespie’s.
Utilitarianism
An ethical philosophy in which the happiness of the greatest number of people in the
society is considered the greatest good. According to this, an action is morally right if its
results lead to happiness and wrong if it ends in unhappiness. The most essential feature
of utilitarianism is that it tends to ignore individual right, minority is sacrificed for
majority.
When we look at the Ford Pinto case we see a conflict between two opposing
perspectives. Corporate culture mind set, which is to prioritize profit as the highest
value and an ethical mindset that values human life above financial gain. From human
rights perspective, Ford is overlooking injured individuals rights and willing to act
unethically when deciding not to make any modification to the fuel system. It is
reasonable to assume that the average person would find it immoral to take the life of
another human being for financial gain.
A utilitaria ould look at Ford’s ase fro different perspectives, it can be argued that
the decision to maximize profit while ignoring safety concerns will result in greater good
because now more people will have their own cheaper automobile with greater
function because of the design which outweighs the lost of very few lives. It could also
be argued that economically shows more people benefit than the number of people
who are harmed. However when looking at how not changing the fuel system
outweighed the benefits, we will see this would result in lots of lawsuit and will cause
reputational damage to Ford.
Conclusion
To compare human life for the purpose of increasing firm value clearly lacks ethical
consideration, simply because life is invaluable. Many lives have been lost for the
purpose of social progress mostly for personal gains rather than social gain. Even though
it can be argued that profits allows companies to bring more innovation that will
improve daily quality of lives for many. We have to look for a way to improve the society
as whole without damaging the lives of few.
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Document Summary
Ford pinto: an ethical analysis behrooz kianian a00930520. During the august of 1970 ford pinto was rushed into productio(cid:374) (cid:271)y ford"s (cid:374)ew president lee lacocca, his main target was that without a reliable alternative to. Japa(cid:374)ese vw beetle the japa(cid:374)ese would (cid:862)capture the e(cid:374)tire a(cid:373)eri(cid:272)a(cid:374) su(cid:271)(cid:272)o(cid:373)pa(cid:272)t (cid:373)arket(cid:863). Lacocca decided to order the development of pinto, which was designed within a short period of time, in order to compete with vw beetle and to release the. Due to the shortage of time the machines that make the car parts were (cid:272)reated (cid:271)efore the (cid:272)ar was tested for safety. La(cid:272)o(cid:272)(cid:272)a"s la(cid:272)k of (cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:272)er(cid:374) for safety resulted in faulty gas tank system that cost the lives of many especially sandra. An ethical philosophy in which the happiness of the greatest number of people in the society is considered the greatest good. According to this, an action is morally right if its results lead to happiness and wrong if it ends in unhappiness.
