Thursday, February 26, 2009
The Electric Car Failed?
Today I found the video of the GM documentary to be kind of infuriating. Not so much that they were taking the cars back, but for the reasons they were taking them back. Professor Perry said that they were taking the cars because of the oil companies and auto part manufacturers. So how does this have to do with ethics? Well first the creation of these cars has already created more jobs and has created a less polluted planet. So doesn’t the idea of utilitarianism not apply to this situation? I find it does, because the principle of utilitarianism looks to find the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people, not to name the number of people that were leased the car and enjoyed having a new invention in their very own hands. The people in the film seemed to be so happy with this new technology, so why not keep them? Because, it seemed GM didn’t want to step on the toes of other people, but they didn’t look down the road to see that this new car would be more beneficial for society. It seems that companies are so caught up in the now, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the electric car back on the market in a few years. I think that car companies need to look at this principle and see that this car could be the future of the world.
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I disagree with the notion that an electric car is creating more jobs because it seems that GM is removing this car because it is doing the exact opposite for them. The maintenance costs of these cars are so small that GM does not need to employ as many people to perform repair services. Complementary companies, like fuel companies, are also suffering because they lose profits as a result of this car. GM does not want to anger companies that they need to function and for that reason I believe they are removing the cars. This is not the most ethical thing for them to do, but they can essentially do whatever they want in this matter because it is their product that they created. They are not doing society any favors by removing these cars, but seeking societies overall approval will most likely lead to financial losses and they are not in a position to incur these losses.
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