An Ethical Analysis of Corporate Bailouts by Robert W. McGee

Looks at the ethical implications of bailouts.

In “An Ethical Analysis of Corporate Bailouts,” Robert McGee looks at corporate bailouts with a critical eye, seeking to measure their practicality and makeup. McGee analyzes corporate bailouts from several ethical perspectives. The primary ethical scope he looks through is Utilitarianism. His Utilitarian analysis concludes that bailouts cannot be ethically justified because the losers exceed the winners when bailouts are given to certain companies or sectors. He points out that, “Money does not just fall from the sky. Ultimately it comes out of people’s pockets. If the government pours money into some industry that is in distress, it must first take the money from some place else.” This is a legitimate problem that many have with bailouts, the fact that the money will be gleaned from increased taxes on those who had nothing to do with the company or industry in the first place. He also looks at bailouts from a rights perspective, and again finds that they cannot be ethically justified, as the companies seeking the bailout do not have the right to be bailed out, nor do they have the right to other people’s money. This source is written for a scholarly audience, as it is written for and posted in a university’s academic archives. This source is valuable because it provides a new perspective on the validity and justification of bailouts. It looks at them from an ethical perspective, as opposed to a business or more quantitative scope. 

Enter the title of your article


Enter a short (max 500 characters) summation of your article
Enter the main body of your article
Lock
+Comments (0)
+Citations (1)
+About
Enter comment

Select article text to quote
welcome text

First name   Last name 

Email

Skip