Deck 1: Conditions for Rational Choice

Question 1

Give a simple argument that breaking a promise, simply because it is convenient to do so, fails the generalization test. Note that one can break a promise only if it is possible to make a promise.

Answer 1

The generalization test suggests that the reasons behind every action must be consistent with the assumption that everybody having the same reason would be acting the same way. Now in the event of anyone making a certain promise, it is important to understand that he or she should make a promise only if it is possible to make the promise in the said circumstances, and that for the promise to be trustworthy, the person making the promise should be trustworthy, at least to the person to whom the promise is being made.
However, as the proverb says, 'promises are made to be broken' if this is taken as an exaggeration, then anybody whosoever has made a promise, should not break it just because it can be broken. Because this defies the actual reason with which the promise was made, that is the rational justification behind any action (here that of making promises). Thus, it is clear that, not everybody would break a promise, just because it can be broken, and that brings in individuality to the actions, thus causing the generalization test to fail.

Question 2

Give a simple argument that lying, merely for convenience, fails the generalization test. Assume that the lie would achieve its purpose only if it is believed.

Answer 2

The generalization test suggests that the reasons behind every action must be consistent with the assumption that everybody having the same reason would be acting the same way. Now in the event of anyone lying, it is important to understand that he or she should lie only if it is expected to fulfil the purpose by lying in the said circumstances, and that for the lie to be trustworthy, the person lying should be trustworthy, at least to the person to whom lying has been done.
However, anybody whosoever has lied, should not lie just because it is easy to do so and would give him/her a convenience. Because this defies the actual reason with which the lie was told, that is the rational justification behind any action (here, that of lying). Thus, it is clear that, not everybody would lie, just because it can be done for convenience and thus it imposes individuality to the actions, thus causing the generalization test to fail.

Question 3

As an ambulance driver, you normally use a siren and flashing lights only for an emergency. At the moment you are driving the vehicle to an important meeting with your boss that may determine whether you will be laid off due to budget cuts. You lingered a bit too long at lunch before departing and therefore turn on the siren so that you can arrive on time. Suppose for the sake of argument that this is legal. Is it generalizable?

Answer 3

The generalization test suggests that the reasons behind every action must be consistent with the assumption that everybody having the same reason would be acting the same way. Now in the said circumstance wherein the ambulance driver is in a hurry to take his boss at the destination, and that it is essential to save him from being laid off, and when he is more pressurized because he got delayed having lunch and while taking rest, we are assuming that turning up the siren is legal just for the sake of argument. Hence the situation provides him with ample causes for justifying his actions.
However, it is clear that what this driver has done is highly subjective. Having subjected under the same circumstances, it is evident that a different driver may not have adopted such a way, which is visibly unethical. However, it is an ethical dilemma because arguments in favor of the driver is that this action of him has not caused any harm to anybody but may save his job. Thus, it is clear that, not everybody would do the same, just because it can be done for convenience and thus it imposes individuality to the actions, thus causing the generalization test to fail.

Question 4

The situation is the same as in the previous exercise, except that you are running late because of a very unusual traffic jam on the route. You can still arrive on time by using the siren. Is this generalizable? What exactly is the scope in this case? Hint : If you are willing to use the siren due to a traffic delay, would you be willing to use it for other kinds of delay? Why not?

Question 5

While walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City, you see a $100 bill on the pavement. You take the money and spend it because you have no way of knowing who dropped it. This is legal, but is it generalizable?

Question 6

You shop at a grocery that arranges milk bottles so that the oldest ones are in front and the freshest in the rear. You reach behind the older bottles to select the one at the very back. Your reason for doing so is to obtain the freshest milk. Does your behavior pass the generalization test?

Question 7

As you are about to board an aircraft, it is announced that the plane will be boarded by zones to expedite the process. However, you would like to board before your zone is called to make sure you can find space for your carry-on luggage in an overhead compartment. Is this generalizable?

Question 8

While commuting home from work, you take a detour through a residential area to avoid a congested main artery. Because only a few drivers take the detour, it removes several minutes from your commuting time due to the light traffic. Is your action generalizable?

Question 9

In the previous exercise, suppose that a few commuters can drive through the residential area unnoticed, but if many cars used the detour, the traffic would become a noisy and hazardous nuisance in the neighborhood. Does this have a bearing on the generalizability of your action?

Question 10

In Exercise 8, suppose that you are taking the detour only because few people know the city as well as you do. If many people knew about the detour and were nonetheless avoiding it, you would follow their example. Is your action generalizable?

Question 11

Music shop temptation. While browsing in a music shop, you spot a CD recording of Arnold Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire. You love this piece, but you are absolutely certain that no one else within a thousand-mile radius can bear listening to this abstract atonal music. The shop is lax about security, and you can easily walk out with the CD without being noticed. You conclude that stealing the CD, because of your unique affection for what others regard as incomprehensible noise, is generalizable. Are you right?

Question 12

Police have closed one lane of a highway due to an accident. A long queue of traffic has formed in the lane that remains open, because drivers slow down to view the accident. However, a few drivers bypass the queue by driving along another lane up to the point of closure and then rely on polite drivers to let them merge at the front of the queue. Is this behavior generalizable? Assume it is legal.

Question 13

In the previous exercise, is it generalizable for a driver at the front of the queue to allow someone to merge? Assume it is legal.

Question 14

You decide to play in an amateur tennis tournament because you know you are the best player in town and will certainly win the trophy and prize money. This is the only reason you are playing the tournament. Is your decision to play in the tournament generalizable? If not, under what sort of rationale would your entry in the tournament be generalizable?

Question 15

You are considering whether your cable TV business should enter the market in Anywheresville, which presently has no cable service. You expect a few other cable companies will do the same. However, past experience in towns of this size shows that only one cable provider will survive. Your only reason for entering the competition is to drive the other companies out. Is a decision to enter this market generalizable?

Question 16

Damage expense. Chris is a new hire at a manufacturing company, which pays his moving expenses. However, the movers seriously damage an expensive piece of furniture. The insurance covers only a small fraction of the cost. Chris mentions this to his boss Bob, who tells him to cover it by padding his expense account over the next few months. Chris is surprised by this suggestion, because in their previous conversations, Bob has impressed him as having a high sense of business ethics. (a) Is it generalizable for Chris to pad the expense reports? Be sure to state the scope clearly. (b) Suppose coworkers tell Chris that this kind of padding goes on all the time at the company. Does this change the analysis?

Question 17

Upgrading the refinery. You are plant manager at a refinery that meets all environmental regulations. However, the mayor of a nearby community is pressuring you to install new technology that would reduce emissions below mandated levels. You respond that your plant is more cost-efficient than some of your competitors because they bore the cost of installing the new technology. Putting the equipment in your plant would erase this advantage and perhaps result in a plant shutdown. However, the mayor, who has taken a course in Ethics as Rational Choice, points out that your rationale is not generalizable. If all plants followed your example, then keeping the old technology would no longer make your plant the most cost-efficient. How should you respond?

Question 18

Ordinarily, an action that fails the generalization test would continue to fail if the scope were broadened. This is because a rationale is less likely to be generalizable when it applies to more people. However, there are exceptions. Can you think of one?

Question 19

In Exercise 7, does boarding early pass the utilitarian test?

Question 20

The accidental bank robbery. Chris is a relief branch manager for Commerce Trust Bank. His job is to fill in for regular branch managers while they are away. Today he is serving at a bank with several inexperienced tellers. One of them, Carole, comes up $900 short at the end of the day. She is in a panic, because reporting a $900 shortage to headquarters would result in automatic termination of her job. On checking the transactions ledger, Chris finds that while cashing a check, Carole misread $100 as $1,000 and paid out the larger amount. Fortunately, thecheck holder is one of the bank's best customers. However, when Chris telephones the customer, he insists that he received only $100-even when Chris mentions that Carole would lose her job if the money were not returned Carole is in tears, but Chris must somehow reconcile the ledger. His options are: (a) report the loss, (b) debit the customer's account by $900, (c) place the amount in a suspense account and let the regular manager resolve the issue at a later time. Which option is likely to maximize utility? Hint. If (c) is selected, the regular manager must select (a) or (b).

Question 21

Back at the music shop. You are again browsing in the music shop that has a CD recording of Arnold Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire on display (see Exercise 11). You were reluctant to steal it last time, but another thought has occurred to you. The shop will never sell this recording, because everyone else in the world hates this atonal stuff, and it can't be returned to the manufacturer. However, if you steal it, at least you will enjoy the music. Furthermore, as a penny-pinching student you can make better use of the $12 on the price tag than the shop owners. The rational thing to do is therefore to steal the CD, if you can get away with it. Is this correct?

Question 22

Irrevocable election. Steve is in his second year at a CPA firm. A firm partner discovers that Steve neglected to attach an irrevocable election form to one of last year's tax returns. The form is necessary for the client to avoid a substantial tax liability in subsequent years. The partner reassures Steve that it is a fine point he would have not expected Steve to catch. The client shouldn't have to pay a higher tax due to their mistake, but there is a way to fix it. The partner asks Steve to prepare the election form and attach it to their file copy of last year's tax return. Then he is to prepare this year's tax return as though the election form were submitted last year. There is no need to mention any of this to the client. If questions arise, they will show the IRS the file copy of the form and suggest that the IRS lost it in processing. Does the partner's request pass the utilitarian test? Is it ethical?

Question 23

Hard choice in Hondo. George is manager of an Ardnak Plastics plant in Hondo, Texas. It employs several hundred persons, a large fraction of the local workforce. George's boss, Bill, telephones him from headquarters in El Paso with the news that the EPA will levy fines against Ardnak for excessive smokestack emissions at the Hondo plant. However, Bill won't approve new scrubbers because the company can't afford it. He points out that competitors have escaped EPA fines even though their emissions are higher. Upon investigation, George learns that the competitors avoid fines by scheduling their heavy emissions at night, when the EPA isn't running tests. Meanwhile, Bill has been in touch with the Mexican authorities and mentions to George the possibility of relocating 15 miles south in Mexico, where environmental regulation is lax. This would necessitate hiring Mexican workers and devastate the economy of Hondo. He tells George that he must either avoid the fines or relocate. George therefore has three options: (a) dump the pollution at night, (b) relocate, or (c) resign, in which case his successor will choose (a) because it is the path of least resistance. Assuming that (a) is ungeneralizable, which of these three options pass(es) the utilitarian test?

Question 24

Retirement fund recommendation. John is a portfolio analyst for Metropolitan City Teachers' Retirement Fund (MCTRF). His boss Mary has asked him to compare one of MCTRF's external growth stock portfolio managers, Bill Fredericks, against Growth Unlimited (GU) and make a recommendation. Mary sees some impressive numbers in GU's performance over the last three years. In fact, John normally evaluates fund managers based on a three-year record. However, this time he is considering a different approach. Bill Fredericks was actually slightly ahead of GU last quarter. In addition, John and Bill have become close friends. Bill has helped John with several projects apart from growth stock investing and has arranged for John and his staff to attend some of Bill's educational seminars without cost to MCTRF. Analyze John's decision from a virtue ethics perspective. Which recommendation(s) pass the virtue ethics test?

Question 25

Plant automation. George is a recent MBA who just joined a manufacturing firm's Cedar Valley plant as its only cost accountant. Cedar Valley is a town of 20,000 people, and the plant is one of several owned by the firm. George's boss Arthur tells him that management wants to automate this particular plant with robots as a pilot project, to help judge whether the other plants should be automated. Arthur admits that the community will be in an uproar due to the loss of jobs. However, the firm can save some of the jobs through retraining. Once George releases accounting information showing that the upgrade is necessary, the community will be less likely to resist. George points out that the report he sent to headquarters last year found that automation would not benefit the plant. Yet Arthur points out that the report was based on cost assumptions, and these can be adjusted as necessary to make the bottom line come out differently. After all, market prices fluctuate, and there is no solid proof that one cost estimate is better than another. How does virtue ethics bear on this case?

Question 26

Missing travel documentation. Tim, a CPA, works for an auditing firm and has been placed in charge of an annual audit for Dalton Enterprises, a medium-sized firm with $20 million in assets. Mr. Dalton micromanages the family-owned firm except the finance area, which he leaves to his son Chauncy, recently appointed as VP of Finance. Chauncy's duties include the appointment of auditors. Past audit reports have never been circulated outside the firm. They have been quite detailed, including all changes in general ledger accounts, because Mr. Dalton uses the reports for administrative control purposes. Tim notices that travel expenses are $20,000 higher this year, due to expenditures authorized by Chauncy. Most of these expenses are undocumented, but the firm's controller seems unconcerned. Tim finally raises the issue with Chauncy, who questions why auditors would be skeptical of his honesty. He says that it is typical of "bean counters" to focus on minor issues while ignoring possibilities for major efficiency improvements. He ends the interview by asking, "What are we paying you guys for anyhow?" How does virtue ethics relate to Tim's decision as to what to put in the report?

Question 27

The good credit reference. Diversified Consolidated Corporation (DCC) is a supplier for North Manufacturing. As a credit officer at DCC, Kathy is responsible for about $1 million in credits to North. There are rumors that North is in deep trouble. The company has always paid on time and even lists BCC as a credit reference. Nonetheless, Kathy decides that a visit with North's treasurer, Scott, is in order. They have developed a good working relationship over the years, and after a few drinks at lunch, Scott levels with her. He confesses that although North's latest financial statements are technically correct, there has been a sudden reversal, and the company is talking to bankruptcy attorneys. Scott is giving first priority to paying suppliers like DCC, because supplier credit is their only hope for survival. In fact, Scott has just placed a major order with DCC's competitor Basic Products. If there is anything Kathy can do to convince Basic to extend credit, North may get over this hump and bring business back to DCC. Otherwise, North is probably headed for bankruptcy by the end of the quarter. Later that day, Kathy receives a phone call from her friend Mike at Basic Products. Suppliers often share credit information, and Mike asks about North. He has heard rumors, and he wants to make sure all is well before he commits to a major order. He is relieved when Kathy tells him that North continues to make its payments promptly. She asks him to hold the line a moment. Her mind races as she thinks about whether to tell the rest of the story. How does virtue ethics interact with the other conditions for rational choice in this case?

Question 28

Suppose that in Exercise 22, the partner thinks better of committing tax fraud. Instead, he tells Steve that the firm will cover the portion of the client's tax bill that results from Steve's mistake. However, it's best that the client know nothing of this. Steve is therefore asked to send the client a copy of the tax form he would have prepared to carry out the partner's first plan, rather than the form actually submitted to the IRS. The partner points out that his new plan complies with tax law and benefits the client, so it can't be unethical. Is he right?

Question 29

What is the ethical choice in Exercise 20?