Ford Pinto Case Study
...hey are bad, the act is wrong.” “They determine what is right by weighing the ratio of good to bad that an action will produce. The right act is one that produces (or will probably produce) at least as great a ratio of good to evil as another course of action.” The problem is that Ford considered profits as the only good that an action can produce. This good is determined exclusively by a cost-benefit analysis of an action's consequences. Probing any given issue from a cost-benefit point of view, we are forced to put a price tag on a human life. Most people will argue that a human life is not something one can put a price tag on. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration begs to differ. The NHTSA estimates that every time a person is killed in an auto accident, society loses $200,725. (The figure in 1972) Ford used this figure to justify the way it handled this case. Ford’s estimate of the cost of the safety improvements greatly surpass the value of a human life according to the NHTSA. Ford avoided coming forward with its design flaws in the gas tanks, to avoid a expensive recall effort, even after reviewing test results from Ford engineers. The authors of Ford’s “Fatalities” report set the number of people killed by fires from car rollovers at a figure of 180 per year. They concluded that this number is fairly low considering how much it would cost to repair the vehicles. At the time, it probably seemed more favorable to Ford to avoid a recall at all cost. This view identifies with egoism. Egoism states that “an act is morally right if and only if it promotes an agent’s (Ford’s) long-term interest.” Altruism states that an action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone except the agent. Ford did not act in a altruistic way, this can be seen in the way that the vehicle’s problem were corrected. This can be seen when the NHTSA implemented the 30 mile per hour collision standard in 1976. At that point, Ford then recalled all Pintos for repairs t...