But anyways, I have decided to focus my project around the Ford Pinto Scandal, The McDonald's vs Stella Liebeck Case and the BP Oil Spill from last year. I have been fortunate to already find copies of or articles on the internal documents for all three companies. These documents all incriminate these companies as being 'aware yet inactive' in preventing any of the tragedies that have come to be because of their active decision to not make the NEEDED change. For example: Studying this article in my business ethics course last semester first got me interested in this topic. Ford knew about their faulty gas tanks yet chose to continue selling them even though they knew that the possibility for fatality due to crash induced fires was extremely high. BP purchased the less expensive and much riskier casing for the oil rig-- which as we all know resulted in malfunction and explosion. And finally, I was inspired to add McDonalds to my list of companies to take down after seeing this film at the Sundance Film Festival and realizing that the lady who spilled hot coffee on herself actually withstood horrific burns and was only one of a documented 700 customers who been severely burned by their coffee. So basically, this is the angle I will be taking on this project, that companies across this nation continually chose profit over safety, human life and well being. Here are pictures of the Ford Pinto after a crash, the Deep Horizon oil rig explosion and Stella Liebeck's burns
That covers it for my business aspect but I plan on incorporating a philosophical perspective on how myself and actual philosophers think business ethics should be handled. I met with one of philosophy professors yesterday about getting suggestions on which philosophers would be most relevant to my study. He suggested Plato, in particular, The Republic, which I have read but it's been a couple years so I will obviously need to reread it with a new purpose. I have also contacted another professor who agreed to help me last semester and am hopeful that I will visit with her next week before the break and rack her brain for suggestions and a little more guidance.Lastly, I am excited about this project but I feel a little bit stuck because it seems like everyone else is doing a project that seems to be more active than writing a research paper. I've said this before, but I don't want this project just to be a research paper. I want to make a difference with it, but I am not quite sure how. After I research the current laws and policies about required business ethics I might be able to propose a new needed law, but I'm pretty sure as an undergraduate I don't have the qualifications to write a new law for the state of Utah...? Scott? Mark? Who knows? :) I've also considered leading a rally against companies such as Ford or McDonalds but I don't want this project to end with me behind bars. I've seriously considering conducting a survey of 50-100 local businesses on their ethical policies but once I have that information I am unsure of where to go from there. I know we are past the suggestions for our project stage but I am still working a lot of kinks out.
I am headed to the library now to see if I can scan in my internal documents and find some actual material that focuses not only on business ethics but the concept of how much a human life is worth and whether or not we can place a value on it.
