Kantian and Utilitarian Ethics - Assignment Example

UTILITАRIАN АND А KАNTIАN АNАLYSIS Student’s Name: Institutional affiliation: QUESTION 1 INTRODUCTION Ethics basically refers to the moral principles that govern a person’s or a business’s behavior towards others. The term ethics originally was a Greek word “ethikos” which means “habit”. They are concepts that help us to differentiate between right and wrong. They determine the best principles and laws that human beings live with (Ransome & Stampford, 2011, p.49). Ethics are divided into three subsections, the meta-ethics which is the understanding that human beings have towards morals of right and wrong, the Normative which is the study of the ethical actions which are some of the questions that arise when one is considering on how to act towards a particular situation and finally the applied ethics which prints out an ethical theory to question how are expected to do towards a specific situation or react towards a particular action taken that affects them directly or indirectly (Dittmer, n.d). Ethics play a vital role in the society today. It is through these morals that human beings coincide well with fellow humans and solve their disputes in a peaceful manner. These morals stretch from the smallest basic unit of human being, which is the family unit to the most public places such as businesses. Some of these morals are put down into law by the government to govern its citizens and some have gone an extra mile especially in the business setup to make their own regulations that govern how the business is run. These business ethics are a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that provide for ethical principles and settle the ethical problems that are usually found in the business environment (Shaw, 2011). Some of the areas that these moral principles mainly address are in the finance sector. This provides for discipline in handling of funds by the business, the employees and the employers. Production is also a major factor that affects the moral principles of a business. A company that is in the production sector may produce less quality goods so as to increase their profit margin by saving on some production costs. The issue of employment is also a factor that hinders business professional ethics. Some employers opt to employ children since their wages are less. The children are paid very little hence the employer pockets the rest of the money as part of their profits. The same case applies to the unskilled laborers that provide cheap labor and in turn producing less quality goods. The main objective of businesses is to maximize their profits by increasing their earnings and reduce their expenses [Ant07]. CHILD LABOR The International Labor Organization (ILO) of the United Nations defined child labor as “any economic activity performed by a person under the age of15” ( United Nations. Dept. of Public Information, 2011, p.33) Despite the abolishment of forced labor and child labor in west African countries by the Portuguese, who where the colonizers of most of the west African countries, the cocoa industry has profited enormously from the abuse of child labor and forced labor. Cote D'Ivoire is amongone of the countries that are greatly affected by this vice of child labor. Today, despite cocoa sector growing to a multibillion dollar industry, the farms still continue to employ thousands of western Africa children, the main reason being that they provide cheap labor. The fact that most families in the developing countries live below the lines of poverty, earning less than a dollar every day, the children are then forced to help out their parents to be able to cater for their daily needs. It is rare to find children working because it is a choice they have made out of free will, but mostly it is a decision that comes up from necessity and the status of their family and also the economic status of their countries. In most farms, these children are treated as slaves, hence they have no freedom of choice or expression, rather what they do is fully controlled by the employer and failure to achieve what is expected will result to violence by the employer and at times the children are not paid for the work done[Int13]. LACK OF EDUCATION Education is a basic key to human life. It is the bridge that connects individuals to what is within their powers to become. It is a route that enhances day to day improvements in the community and builds responsible citizens. It is important to understand the fact that education is a weapon through which any person can use to tackle everyday's challenges. In Cote D’Ivoire, the fact that children are employed in thousands of numbers to work in the cocoa growing farms denies such children the freewill to take go to school and equip themselves with knowledge. Basic education is a right that should be granted to every child. It is the duty of the government to ensure that every child gets primary education. Programs should be developed to ensure that even the most disadvantaged child such as the orphans has access to education. Such measure can include government putting up institutions to support the needy children or similarly the government and other non-governmental organizations funding the public primary schools to provide free education to all and hence equal opportunities in life (Brown, 2012, pp. 8-12) Parents’ education is also a contributing factor to the increase in the number of child laborers in Cote D’Ivoire. The parents, who had a chance to go to school and have a rough idea of the positive impact of child education, ensure that their children are provided with the basic education. Those that did not get the chance to attend school are often ignorant and tend to send their children to labor in the cocoa fields forgetting that the child will need some knowledge in future to support them and their families. POVERTY Among the reasons that makes the children miss school are; the high Cost of Going to School. Most families are from poor backgrounds and hence cannot afford the high costs of school fees. The most basic of needs such as food and clothing still remains a challenge to them, some stay for a whole day without having taken a single meal. Fair access to all available schools still remains a challenge. The government does not fund the public schools properly hence the cost of maintenance of the schools and that to purchase stationery is passed over to the parents making it almost impossible to enroll the children to school. HEALTH HIV/ AIDS and other diseases like cancer and syphilis that are responsible for large number of deaths especially among mature persons from 15 - 49 years of age, have remained a hindrance to support the many needy children in the society. The government is placing a huge amount of its budget to the purchase of the expensive drugs to maintain the good health of its citizens thereby failing to set aside enough money to support the education of the country. Children that engage in child sex activities have also had health issues since they may be infected with the sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and in the process of giving out their bodies for money, they may end up transmitting the infections to others. UNEMPLOYMENT OF SKILLED PESONNEL Unemployment still remains a major issue in the third world countries. There is not a single time that a third world country misses unemployed persons. Some of the challenges that governments face is when investors invest in a country, they mostly employ their relatives leaving out the qualified people. Child labor is a type of an involuntary employment. The fact that there are children employed in the cocoa farms in Cote D’Ivoire, means that a number of qualified personnel will miss out employment opportunities in the country as their workforce is replaced by the children. This means that poverty still remains a major challenge in the country as the number of unemployed people continues to rise. This forces the people to turn their reliance on the government forcing the government to change its budget’s expenditure to support the families of those not employed. Sometimes, when the adults lose their employment, they may end up sending their children off to the farms to provide cheap sources of labor and at the end of the day bring the payments to the parents to help support them. QUESTION 2 UTILITARIAN ANALYSIS Utilitarianism is a type of an ethical theory that provides for morals that increase the ability of a person to live in accordance to their personal preferences. It holds that human conduct must promote the welfare or interest of those affected and that the right actions are those that benefit the majority and harm the least (Black & Roberts, 2011). The international labor organization (ILO) was formed under the United Nations act as a means to fight and cub the increasing number of children laborers in the world. It was formed to empower children and give them a chance to get the basic education. Since its inception it has been able to provide evidence of countries where child labor is rampant and focuses on such area to reduce this children being used to provide cheap labor in the farms. Africa and mostly western African countries are identified as the areas where child labor has taken root. Cote D’Ivoire is one of the countries that are mostly affected by these findings and especially in the cocoa farms where almost half of the workers are children. The disadvantages of child labor out do the advantages such that it’s not only the children that lose out but also the country itself. Over the years, children have been used to offer cheap labor in the world. The lack of strict government rules and regulations and also instability in both the political and economic sectors of the developing countries has seen many children turn into unethical acts. In countries that face political instability, children are affected negatively. Most of these children especially the males are kidnapped and forcefully recruited in the military to act as soldiers for the opposition leaders. The female children who are left behind are mostly left to take care of themselves at a tender age and at times their younger siblings. These children have no other means of meeting their needs hence circumstances force them to be careless and ignorant children that they end up becoming. Employing the children in the farms greatly undermines their free will. It reduces their morale and the joy of growing up like the other children. The utilitarian theory of ethics provides that actions of man should be triggered by his happiness and the ability to live as he pleases. According to what was happening in the field, the children are denied a chance to live a pleasant life. Instead they live in adverse conditions whereby they have to labor in order to be given food yet it is the most basic need in human life. In as much as the broker viewed it as help to the children, so much is denied to them and the kind of work they do, they deserve to be paid better making the conditions in the field unethical. [Int13] KANTIAN’S ANALYSIS Kantian’s theory of ethics was invented by Immanuel Kant’s and was placed under the deontological theory of ethic. The deontology is a term that was originally Greek, “deon” that means “obligation” or “duty”. It determines moral goodness and rightness from a person’s act. Goodness and rightness is a consequence of the act but not from the act itself (Wood, 2008, p.1-2). The Kantian’s theory of ethics is placed under the deontological ethics due to a number of supporting reasons; firstly, it is a duty or a responsibility for people to act in a morally upright manner. Kant also argued that it is the consequences of the action that make the act good or bad and not the motive. Therefore before taking an action, one should carefully consider the consequences first even if the motive is right. The broker in Cote D’Ivoire was of the opinion that if he offers employment to the children, thereby making a little more responsible children than they would have become if he had not taken to employ them. From this dimension, his motives are good since he takes it as his moral duty to try and help the children but the consequences of his actions are wrong. This is because when he takes to employ the children, he commits a crime under the laws of the United Nations of employing a minor which comprises of child labor. Secondly, he denies the children the right to education. Even though the children are orphaned, he has a moral obligation to support the children and educate them; rather he sees it as an opportunity to have them work in the cocoa farms to provide him with cheap labor and hence increase his profits. What he pays the children for working is the same food which he could have given the laborers as an enticement for them to work harder, meaning that all the labor cost is saved by employing the children. The Kantian’s theory provides that in as much as we act in certain ways because it is a duty to do so, the consequences of one’s actions should determine where the person will act in a particular way or not. Employing the children has great consequences not only to the children but also to the economy of the nation. The government ends up losing out its revenue from the unlawful employment of children since the profits from the employers are usually not taxed; same as the fact that the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) taxes are equally not taxed. This means that in as much as the motive and the actions of the broker from Cote D’Ivoire seem to be good, there are bad consequences of his actions. All the parties involved are on the losing end except for the broker who is in a way escaping the right value of taxes to pay to the government and the labor costs. QUESTION 3 RECOMMENDATIONS WHETHER TO TAKE UP THE CONTRACT OR NOT Ethics are not constant and some may vary from place to place. In some places, doing certain acts would be considered as taboos while the same act would be a thing of the past or a part of the day to day activities in another country. For instance the practicing of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is considered as unlawful and punishable in most countries yet some communities still go ahead to practice the same as they want to maintain their traditions and breaking such a norm will be considered a taboo. There are two dimensions for the acts of the broker from Cote D’Ivoire. His views are that he employs the children to work in his farm and providing food for them to avoid them being recruited as children soldiers for the males and practicing prostitution and child sex for the females. In his views, his intentions are to support the children to grow up and be morally upright children. According to him, it could be worse if the children are recruited as soldiers since it would raise the insecurity levels of the country and also increase the political tension in the country. Similarly, the children will grow up being ruthless and non-law abiding citizens thereby making the conditions of living in such countries not to favor the investments to trigger growth and economic development. When the female children turn to early child sex, the health of the nation is compromised. Whereas most of them are forced by circumstances to indulge in such matters such as financial matters and the search of their basic needs, they risk contracting sexually transmitted infections that they may end up spreading to other people. According to the broker, in a way he has acted in a morally upright way to help avoid the children from using adverse ways to meet their daily needs. His actions were in away ethical, same to his motives but still the consequences of the actions have negativities. In my views, the government of Cote D'Ivoire has failed to cater for the basic requirements of its citizens. All children have the right to access basic education and considering the fact that there are financial challenges that they face, the issue of basic education should be their first priority. A comparison to Mexico, where the children are receive a compulsory primary education shows that the orphaned children are not neglected by the government, rather they are supported to grow up and be responsible and independent citizens. Secondly, the broker is in my opinion acting in an unethical manner since he is taking advantage of the fact that the children are orphaned and hence needy and having them to work in the cocoa farms and their pay being food. There are thousands of skilled adults that are unemployed since they will require to be paid some wages at the end of every day or salaries depending on their agreements with their employers. He foregoes the option of hiring those that are qualified to work in the farms to employ children. His main motive is not to provide an opportunity for the children to grow as resourceful citizens but to increase his earnings by reducing the labor costs and thereby reducing the cost of production. The 40% reduction in the purchase price of the cocoa beans is absorbed by the fact that there are little or no labor costs unlike in Mexico. Although the purchase of the cocoa beans from Cote D’Ivoire will reduce the purchase cost and hence increase the profits of my company, the business might face some adverse conditions in future might ruin the image of the company that will make the company to suffer huge losses in future. My recommendation is that the company should not enter into a contract with the broker from Cote D’Ivoire and hence should continue its operations with Mexico. References Anti-Slavery Society. (2007). TOPICAL RESEARCH DIGEST: HUMAN RIGHTS AND CONTEMPORARY SLAVERY. Retrieved from http://www.anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/chocolates1.htm. Black, J., & Roberts, C. (2011). Consequentialism and Utility. Doing ethics in media theories and practical applications (p. 317). New York: Routledge. Brown, G. (2012). Child Labour & Educational Disadvantage – Breaking the Link, Building Opportunity. Dittmer, J. (n.d.). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ethics, Applied  []. Retrieved May 2, 2014, from http://www.iep.utm.edu/ap-ethic/ International Labour Organization. (2013). World Report on child labour, Economic vulnerability, social protection and the fight against child labour. Geneva: International Labour Office. Ransome, W., & Sampford, C. (2011). The Meaning of Ethics and Criticism of SRI. Ethics and Socially Responsible Investment a Philosophical Approach. (p. 49). Farnham: Ashgate Pub.. Shaw, W. H. (2011). The Nature Of Morality. Business ethics (7th ed., Student ed., pp. 23-26). Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. United Nations. Dept. of Public Information, U. N. (2011). We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-first Century : the Millennium Report, Volume 2161. Michigan: United Nations, Department of Public Information, 2001. Wood, A. W. (2008). Kantian ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More