ECO..Profits and morality - Assignment Example

Profits and Morality Profits and Morality In my opinion, people should not be given the freedom to decide for themselves in all situations. In the example regarding payment of bills, Milton Friedman asks the audience to assume for a moment that the electric company does not cut the connection upon non-payment of bills and points out that this will result in only those payers who do it voluntarily (Sidewinder77, 2007a). This implies that only a few individuals will keep on paying bills and the only ones who will, will be the ones doing it voluntarily based on their own decision to pay and not based on the insistence of the electric company.

This is because there will no longer be a motivation to keep doing paying or else the electric supply will be cut off. However, in this case of freedom to decision-making involving consumption has led to a negative outcome reducing the wellbeing of the capitalistic electric company that is there for profit. Another example mentioned involves Ford Pinto model of car and is a quite well-documented incident regarding the defective rear engines of the car that could catch fire following collisions (Sidewinder77, 2007b).

If people were given the freedom to decide about the production and buying variables of the car, most individuals would not be willing to pay a higher price for a safer car. This decision would ultimately increase the risk of being susceptible to death by a faulty car because people, if given the freedom to decide, would not always choose rationally thereby reducing overall wellbeing of the society. Therefore, the argument for freedom of decision is unconvincing due to the tendency of humans to decide irrationally at certain situations.

ReferencesSidewinder77. (2007a, December 2). Milton Friedman on Self-Interest and the Profit Motive 1of 2 [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev_Uph_TLLoSidewinder77. (2007b, December 2). Milton Friedman on Self-Interest and the Profit Motive 2of 2 [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPqdRqacpFk