Ethics - same to all of us?

[Imagine] a local and successful bottled water company located in the Dominican Republic has been serving Haiti, its neighbor, for many years. Although it was unaffected by the recent earthquake, it decided to double the price of its water following the earthquake in order to capitalize on the tremendous emergency demand for bottled water in the absence of safe municipal water and the fact that its overseas competitors all had trouble getting their water to the area.

The ethics of the company's decision the company would have to have applied in making its decision...

Utilitarianism assesses the consequences of actions and the effect they have on all parties involved. The ethical way to behave in a given situation is to maximize social welfare by producing the greatest overall good after calculating the costs and benefits of the action. The Haitians receiving overpriced water will suffer more from the lack of free choice than the bottled water company will benefit from the extra money. The company, doubling the price of water, acted unethically.

Deontology assesses the action itself without considering its consequences. Ethics are marked by universal principles that set absolute rules for right behavior. By means of categorical imperatives, moral behavior is guided by overriding rights and duties that exhibit people’s respect for the intrinsic value of others. It is ethical for people to use each other as a means to achieve their own purpose only if the actions done are mutually beneficial to all parties involved. It is unethical, however, to use others only as a means to accomplishing their own purposes with no mutual benefit attached. The company, doubling the price of water being sold to earthquake survivors, removed the free will, an ethical value, of one of the parties, thereby acting unethically.

Virtue ethics assesses the potential of human beings and how they can cultivate their good habits. People develop their virtues by being exposed to valued moral behavior in their communities. As virtue ethics is a matter of moral characteristics ingrained within a community, and the maximization of profit is a virtue encouraged by all enterprises, a group that forms a community, doubling the price of water sold to victims of the earthquake is an ethical way to act.

The company, making the decision to increase the price of water sold to the Haitian victims, must have applied the theory of virtue ethics. Doubling the price would be considered unethical according to the theories of utilitarianism, as it causes more harm than good. It would be unethical according to the theory of deontology, as it is never acceptable to use people in ways that are not mutually beneficial. According to the theory of virtue ethics, however, the company would be acting ethically, as doubling the price to increase profit when demand is so inelastic is a moral characteristic ingrained within the community.