Transcript ETHICS - University of Georgia

ETHICS
Are ethics culturally determined?
Are there cross cultural
commonalities??
Inter-generational equity may be
one.
The example of Machalilla National Park Ecuador
Machalilla National Park,
Ecuador
• Local people used the land for firewood,
etc. Didn’t want it to be a national park
• But, when asked about the value of the
land for their children, they wanted it to
be preserved as a national park
• Message…people hold complex ethical
values and inter-generational equity is
strong.
Taste is not ethics
• I like to smoke is a statement of taste.
• I have a right to smoke is an ethical
statement
• I have a right not to breathe secondhand smoke creates ethical conflict.
• Smoke causes cancer therefore trumps
smoking as pleasure..not all rights are
equal
Political arguments are
often a false use of
ethical analysis
“We shouldn’t be spending billions on
endangered species when our
soldiers are dying in the Middle East”
• Examine the premise
• Check the facts/information
• Check the source
Examine the premise
• Are the alternatives comparable?
• Is the slow progress of the war due to
limited available funds?
• If the US spent less on protecting T
and E species would we spend more
in the Middle East?
Check the facts/information
• GAO Feb 2006 (GAO-06-463R
Endangered Species Recovery)
• Median recovery cost per species $1.5
million (mostly high profile species)
• 1300 total T and E species in US
• Therefore if all 1300 had recovery
budgets the total would be $1.95 billion.
(assumes median cost stays same)
http://www.fws.gov/budget/2008/FWS
• FY 2008 (total) budget request for FWS
ca $2.3 billion
• 1 billion operating budget (e.g. salaries)
• 1.3 billion discretionary budget which
includes T and E funds; 859.4 million for
state share (ca 75% from feds)
Check the source
• Alan Caruba, Capitalism Magazine
• PERC (Property and Environment
Research Center)
• Free Market approach to environmental
protection, i.e.,without government
• Helps to understand the value system
If we don’t
consider ethics
in our decisions
…
Most common causes of
ethical failure in business
• 1. Pressure to meet unrealistic
business objectives/deadlines
• 2. Desire to further one’s career
• 3. Desire to protect one’s livelihood
What else would you add as common causes
of ethical failure??
Fortunately, the
importance of ethical
considerations is
now generally
recognized
Legacy of Enron
Most people approach
ethics with a mix of
values: instrumental
(utilitarian) and intrinsic
(inherent)
Instrumental:Human use value
often but not always expressed in
monetary terms
Some examples: elephants
valued for ivory, forests for
timber, wetlands for duck hunting
Instrumental values usually expressed in
monetary terms.
Advantage: Makes costs and benefits of
decisions easy to compare.
Disadvantage: The proper monetary
valuation is difficult to measure. Other, nonmarket values are lost.
Instrumental values can be high. 17
ecological services worth $33 trillion
per year. Compare with world GNP
of $17 trillion. Example: just a few
acres of salt marsh equal service of
million dollar waste water treatment
plant.
Intrinsic: Value as an end
Itself; difficult to monitize.
Some examples:
elephants as sentient
beings, forests and
wetlands as ecosystems.