What about the possibility that the US auto industry encour

?   What about the possibility that the US auto industry, encouraged by its partial owner, the US government, will no longer produce large gas guzzlers (think Hummer) or will subsidize hybrid or green cars? Is it ethical for the government to essentially prevent a US company from producing a legal good or encourage a company to produce one good over another? What ethical theory supports your position?

   ?   What are the possible ethical considerations of banning or restricting the import of cars that do not meet certain emission standards? Volkswagen was recently embroiled in a major business disaster when it was discovered that software engineers had inserted a \"fix\" in their cars that was designed to fool emission tests. While illegal, was that unethical?

   ?   Finally, the world today is full of news about fracking, the process by which a high volume of liquid is pumped into the ground to fracture rock and extract natural gas. What are the ethical considerations of either permitting or prohibiting property owners from using their property in this manner?

Solution

1) It is not ethical for the government to subsidize hybrid or green cars and prevent a company from producing a legal good over another as the good in this case are luxury goods and they are taxed heavily.

These companies pay huge amount of taxes to produce such goods to the government and as long as these companies are fulfilling their obligations and paying taxes to produce a legal good,it is ethically wrong for the government to prevent them from producing one good over another and establishing unfair trade practices in the market.The market should decide what it wants and that only can result in change in demand for one good over another.By engaging in production of such goods which are harmful for the environment,the comapnies are already paying huge taxes to pay for the societal cost incurred as demanded by the government and so,subsidizing the industry will result in unfair competition and huge losses.

The theory which supports this arguement is the theory of system sensitive ethics by Hardin.The ecosystem has to be preserved and the moral system to aloow people to use such products should support the system.Hardin implies that there should be no restrictions and the firms should produce what they want as long as it is legal and satisfies the government\'s tax liabilities and are also, safe for the consumption.