Ethical Dilemma
In the first scenario, the vice president of a beer company has been asked to organize a lobbying effort to reduce the drinking age to 18. From a strictly legal perspective, there is nothing wrong with this request. The company has the legal right to lobby government for legislative changes that it wants to see. Indeed, the Citizens United ruling expands the privilege of free speech in elections to all bodies, individual or corporate. From a legal perspective the company can organize such an effort and if it is successful will have achieved its objectives through legal channels.
The ethics of the issue are a little fuzzier. There are different ethical perspectives that can be used to analyze this issue. One perspective is the consequentialist perspective. A consequentialist looks to the outcomes of one's actions to determine the moral worth of those actions. The different outcomes here can be wide-ranging, and are largely uncertain. The company's efforts will have the following outcomes whether the lobbying is successful for not -- it will be a PR disaster. There are enough anti-alcohol groups and watchdogs that there is basically no way for the company to lobby in secret. These groups will waste no opportunity to vilify the company for undertaking this lobbying effort. Whether this demonization would have an effect on the revenues or profits of the company is not known, since many anti-alcohol groups consist of non-drinkers anyway.
The utilitarian perspective is a consequentialist point-of-view that holds that the ideal solution is the one that produces the greatest good for the greatest number. In this case, while the shareholders of the company would certainly get a short-term boost from a lower drinking age, this must be weighed against the effects on society at large. What those outcomes might be depends on who you ask -- certaintly...
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