Phil 360: Business Ethics

A variety of perspectives on famine We have seen that a government has some obligation toward starving members of its society. What, if anything do the wealthiest members of the world owe to the poorest? What do citizens of affluent countries owe to those who are starving globally?

Famine, Affluence, and Morality See the paper by Peter Singerpaper Singer offers the following moral principle (my paraphrase): – If we can help others without sacrificing something of comparable moral importance, we are morally obligated to do so. – Singer refutes such views as the “fair share” view and he advocates that people give to the point of marginal utility. – This is a very stringent point of view

Lifeboat Ethics This set of perspectives is owed to (largely) Garett Hardin. See paper.paper Hardin argues that if a commodity even a vital commodity (i.e. space in a boat or food) is scarce, then those who have it are not obligated to part with it, even if they have it through no merit of their own.

Malthus Thomas Malthus ( ) was an English clergyman and early economic scholar. Malthus is famous (or infamous) for his realization that population would eventually outgrow the ability of the world’s farmers to grow food. He used this (in his time, true) notion to argue that no aid be given to areas experiencing famine, on the ground that it would simply allow overpopulation to get worse until more people would die of starvation.

The Haber-Bosch Process See Thomas Hager, “The Alchemy of Air” This process is used to turn atmospheric nitrogen (which is plentiful and free) into synthetic fertilizer, meaning that as of now, the world’s farmers are capable of producing much more food than necessary to support even the current population. It is estimated that ½ of all the animal protein in the world is due to the Haber-Bosch process, which produces enough food to support 1/3 to ½ of current world population. As a result, the conditions that Mathus pointed out no longer strictly apply, at least not with respect to grown food.

Amartaya Sen The Haber-Bosh process has been around for well over half a century now, so why are there still famines? Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize winner in economics for his work studying famines, points out that famines are human-created events. There is enough food for everyone, but what there is not is enough money among certain groups at certain times to buy the food that is available. The details of his views are available in many places, including his book “Development as Freedom”

The world’s resources: When we speak of the world’s resources, we mean to refer to: – Natural goods: air, water, minerals, land and trees – Cultivated natural goods: agricultural produce and livestock – Manufactured goods – Non-manufactured goods: talents, technology, knowledge, organizations

Who owns the world’s resources? The status quo view: – This is the currently prevalent view: Legally speaking, the world’s resources are owned by countries, corporations, companies, and individuals. – This does not mean, of course, that the world’s resources OUGHT to belong to who they currently, legally belong to.

The universal ownership view Those who advocate this view advocate the position that all of earth’s resources belong equally to everyone. Those who advocate this view have no clear plan for distribution of all the world’s resources, but that doesn’t mean that the view is not morally correct (it might be).

The universal access view So long as the resources of the world are used by whoever owns them to the mutual benefit of all, it matters less who owns them. For this view, ownership is not the main issue, it’s the control that the rest of the world has over the use that a particular country, company, or individual puts those resources to.

Global Common Goods There are parts of the world that clearly nobody owns. The ozone layer, for example is a common good that nobody owns but that everybody is obligated to protect (recall the tragedy of the commons). In general, each nation, company, and individual is morally obligated to use resources in such a way as not to waste them, not to destroy them for future generations, and so much as possible to develop sustainably.

International action International actions, like the Kyoto protocol, for example, are attempts at getting some kind of international consensus on the appropriate use of resources, and appropriate stewardship of global common goods.