Ford Pinto
This is an important case study, because it shows the need for ethical standards in business. It is common practice in business to perform a cost-benefit anaylsis. For example, I may suggest that we only serve Fair Trade coffee at my cafe. I can calculate how much this may cost - it may be £500 a month, as Fair Trade coffee costs more. Now I need to estimate the increase in sales. This could be done by carrying out market research. Some customers don't care either way, others would not pay more for Fair Trade, whilst some would be more inclined to make a return visit. The new customers gained may balance out those who stop coming due to the higher price, and we may be left with a £300 increase in income overall. As a business, moving to Fair Trade would cost s £200 a month, so we may decide not to. In fact, I wil probably offer Fair Trade as an option, with a cheaper alternative available too.
In the Ford Pinto case, there was a fault on the Pintos, whose design and production were rushed and squeezed to sell the car for under $2000. To put it right would have meant recalling all Ford Pintos. That's 11 million cars, costing between $10 and $20 dollars to fix. The overall bill was estimated at $137 million. Ford then calculated the likely number of accidents resulting from this fault. Their estimate was 180 deaths, 180 serious burn injuries, 2100 vehicles lost. The cost to the company, who would have to pay out in law suits, was estimated at $49.5 million. In other words, it would be cheaper not to recall the cars, and to pay out when people started dying as a result of the fault.
An analysis of this case, looking at a Utilitarian responses, can be found on the excellent Philosophical Investigations site.
