Ethics Paper Week 2
Ethical Dilemma Paper
Learning Team A
ETH/321
23 February, 2015
CJ Hughes
“It’s invisible to us, but there is a crime wave going on, unprecedented in human history”. This is the opening line to “Counterfeit Culture,” a documentary about how counterfeit items enter the market, the kinds of goods normally purchased, and how it not only affects the global economy, but our own personal lives as well. In the last twenty years, counterfeit goods have exploded. This is because the way consumers do business has changed. Globalization has become a major influence on all markets and goods can now easily flow from one country to another, real and counterfeit. Counterfeit goods affect our economy by flooding the market with fake goods, that are being made by criminals and devaluing the real original products. Sometimes, the counterfeit products are made using hazardous ingredients that are, in some cases, fatal. The ethical decision here is, what do we sacrifice for money? The answer resoundingly, is everything. When you look at your car for instance, are you sure every piece on your car was made properly? Or were the brake pads made by a counterfeiter which now causes you to take an additional 40 yards to stop? The ethical choices we make, in this instance, can have very life threating results.
The ethical dilemmas in, “Counterfeit Culture” were numerous. Counterfeiters knowingly create false products, retailers knowingly sell them, and some consumers knowingly support the counterfeit market. Alternatives, you can make when thinking about buying counterfeit merchandise is to think, would the benefit of buying genuine merchandise outweigh the possible side effects of buying it as a knock off? Another alternative to stopping counterfeiting would be for governments, around the world to heavily enforce laws against the creating, buying, and selling of counterfeit merchandise. If you look at the ethical theory of utilitarianism, what would cause the
Learning Team A
ETH/321
23 February, 2015
CJ Hughes
“It’s invisible to us, but there is a crime wave going on, unprecedented in human history”. This is the opening line to “Counterfeit Culture,” a documentary about how counterfeit items enter the market, the kinds of goods normally purchased, and how it not only affects the global economy, but our own personal lives as well. In the last twenty years, counterfeit goods have exploded. This is because the way consumers do business has changed. Globalization has become a major influence on all markets and goods can now easily flow from one country to another, real and counterfeit. Counterfeit goods affect our economy by flooding the market with fake goods, that are being made by criminals and devaluing the real original products. Sometimes, the counterfeit products are made using hazardous ingredients that are, in some cases, fatal. The ethical decision here is, what do we sacrifice for money? The answer resoundingly, is everything. When you look at your car for instance, are you sure every piece on your car was made properly? Or were the brake pads made by a counterfeiter which now causes you to take an additional 40 yards to stop? The ethical choices we make, in this instance, can have very life threating results.
The ethical dilemmas in, “Counterfeit Culture” were numerous. Counterfeiters knowingly create false products, retailers knowingly sell them, and some consumers knowingly support the counterfeit market. Alternatives, you can make when thinking about buying counterfeit merchandise is to think, would the benefit of buying genuine merchandise outweigh the possible side effects of buying it as a knock off? Another alternative to stopping counterfeiting would be for governments, around the world to heavily enforce laws against the creating, buying, and selling of counterfeit merchandise. If you look at the ethical theory of utilitarianism, what would cause the