A Utilitarian Argument in the Ford Pinto Case
David Beckam
Dropbox 4
Business Ethics
A Utilitarian Argument in the Ford Pinto Case
In 1971 Ford Motor Company decided they wanted to create a compact car that could compete with the other Japanese manufactured cars. It rushed from its inception to its actual production. In the end, these cars proved to be one of the most dangerous ever produced because of their extreme flammability in instance of rear impact collision. The decision by Ford to not recall any of its cars, and not fix design flaws, conceal the truth of their mistake and roll the dice future incoming lawsuits, damages and loss of human life is the one that I will dissect. I will show how this action uses the “greatest happiness and greatest pleasure” form of Utilitarianism and the true moral flaws that it exposes.
Many parties were affected is this case including the Ford Motor Company employees, the shareholders, the company owners, and every single consumer or person who not only purchased the vehicles but also drove in them including the ones who were injured, burned or even killed, and not to be forgotten, the rest of the whole world. Actually no one escapes the ripple effect of this decision.
Ford Motor Company, led by President Lee Iacocca, discovered that during the sped up engineering and production process it had created the fuel tank vulnerable to fiery rear crashes because of the layout of the car.
Ford realized this but made its decision to not recall the cars based of their own company formulated utilitarian cost benefit analysis and fear of negative company effects. Ford Motor Company weighed the risk in terms of how much it would cost the company to pay for damages and loss of any human life, which was put into a numeric dollar value by the National Highway Travel Safety Administration (NHTSA) of $200,000 per life and multiplied it by the number of accidents it estimated would occur from the flaw. Ford Motor Company calculated that the cost of compensation
Dropbox 4
Business Ethics
A Utilitarian Argument in the Ford Pinto Case
In 1971 Ford Motor Company decided they wanted to create a compact car that could compete with the other Japanese manufactured cars. It rushed from its inception to its actual production. In the end, these cars proved to be one of the most dangerous ever produced because of their extreme flammability in instance of rear impact collision. The decision by Ford to not recall any of its cars, and not fix design flaws, conceal the truth of their mistake and roll the dice future incoming lawsuits, damages and loss of human life is the one that I will dissect. I will show how this action uses the “greatest happiness and greatest pleasure” form of Utilitarianism and the true moral flaws that it exposes.
Many parties were affected is this case including the Ford Motor Company employees, the shareholders, the company owners, and every single consumer or person who not only purchased the vehicles but also drove in them including the ones who were injured, burned or even killed, and not to be forgotten, the rest of the whole world. Actually no one escapes the ripple effect of this decision.
Ford Motor Company, led by President Lee Iacocca, discovered that during the sped up engineering and production process it had created the fuel tank vulnerable to fiery rear crashes because of the layout of the car.
Ford realized this but made its decision to not recall the cars based of their own company formulated utilitarian cost benefit analysis and fear of negative company effects. Ford Motor Company weighed the risk in terms of how much it would cost the company to pay for damages and loss of any human life, which was put into a numeric dollar value by the National Highway Travel Safety Administration (NHTSA) of $200,000 per life and multiplied it by the number of accidents it estimated would occur from the flaw. Ford Motor Company calculated that the cost of compensation
Cited: DeGeorge, Richard T. Business Ethics 7th Edition. New Jersey Pearson, 2010. Print. Hoffman, W. Michael. “The Ford Pinto.” Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality. Ed. W. Michael Hoffman, Robert E. Frederick, and Mark S. Schwartz. New York NY. McGraw-Hill, 2001. Boyce, Daniel “The Flaw of Utlitarianism: The Ford Pinto Case” Business Ethics IB. 15 April, 2010. Web. 11 April 2014.