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One example in which the greatest good might conflict with my own personal happiness is in the subject of the socialization of health care—i.e., government subsidizing health care. On the face of it, this sounds like a great thing because then people like I do not have to worry about paying for health care: it is entirely free for us. The costs might not come down (in fact they would probably go up—but the government would be paying for it, so it wouldn’t matter to me). So socialized medicine would be great for me and I would love it.
However, it would not be great for the next generation which would be taxed with having to repay the debt the government would have to take out in order to pay for subsidized care. The government is already more than $20 trillion in debt. If interest rates go up, the government will have trouble simply servicing its debt. I will have my free health care, but others will working just to pay taxes just to service the bill for my health care. Other programs will likely have to be cut—such as social security. Spending on the military would probably have to be cut in...
I for one think spending on the military should be cut because we are in too many foreign lands already—however, if it were cut, it would cause a lot of people who depend on the military for their livelihoods, such as soldiers and contractors, to have to find new work, which might not be easy, especially if our economy enters into a recession.
So while I would have my free health care, the majority of society might feel overwhelmed by the burdens my own personal good places on them: instead of having the choice to decide whether or not they want to buy health care or pay for coverage, they are told they must because it is important that people like I have health care. Never mind that it would shave billions from other programs or that future generations would be faced with crushing debt. What is important is my own personal benefit in the here and now.
From a utilitarian perspective, this should be unacceptable. My own personal benefit should not outweigh the benefit of the majority of the community or of future…
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Today's laws consider human life the highest of all rights. Hence also the ethical difficulty relating to abortion. Although abortion might be the utilitarian course of action; the mother does not have the finances to support a baby: there is no husband; the baby will not have access to his or her basic rights as a person, the ethical viewpoint of many fundamentalists is that it simply cannot be
Lastly, it runs counter to the view that morality is essentially related to the concept of justice. Many critics of this theory argue that, "morality is not based on consequences of actions. Instead, it is based on the fundamental concept of justice" (Lee). In the final analysis, the dilemma in utilitarianism is that it unable to deal with a wide range of moral issue and actins and, as such, tends
Utilitarianism: A Closer Look Utilitarianism is an old political theory. It has been put forth in one form or another by many political philosophers over the years as the basis for a good political system. Epicurus was one of the early proponents of utilitarianism, though he did not call it by that name. However, he did promote the idea that happiness or pleasure was a good indicator of moral decisions. Jeremy
Utilitarianism as it Relates to Sports There are many philosophies that make up the social and political structures of nations around the world. Many of these philosophies can also be applied to sports and sports related activities. The purpose of this discussion is to explore the concept of Utilitarianism. We will begin by defining the philosophy and addressing the beliefs of Utilitarians. We will then discuss how Utilitarian beliefs relate to sports. Utilitarianism Utilitarianism
The satisfaction derived from that is by reason of good will towards the common man and not some universal pleasure felt by all men. But what about pain? Is Mills seems to be stating that happiness is the absence of pain. But is not some pain beneficial? Our reaction to spoiled milk that prevents us from drinking it for example. Wait, perhaps there are levels of pain that need to