McClure – M7

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What environmental responsibilities do we have to the rest of the world?
There are plenty of responsibilities that we have to keep our planet thriving. We need to start recycling more, finding alternative sources of fuel, and continue to minimize the amount of gasses we’re releasing into the atmosphere. We have a responsibility not only to our community, but to the rest of the world. It takes more than one person, everyone has to help make a change.

What obligations do we have to future generations?
We have an obligation to put in the work, to research and innovate new and creative ways to make the Earth a healthier and safer place to live. Using an old adage, we need to leave this place better than we found it. With the technology that we have and the brilliant minds of our generation, we can do just that.

I believe that everybody is responsible for cleaning up the Earth. Not just the people that have polluted it. I think that everybody has something to gain from doing so. A cleaner and healthier place to live, for us and for the generations to come.

M6 – McClure

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From previous knowledge and a little bit of research, I chose to use one of automotive engineering’s biggest disasters of a vehicle. The ’71-76 Ford Pintos. In 1971, Ford president Lee Iacocca, was trying to get Ford into the subcompact car game. He had an asinine goal of creating a vehicle that was under 2000 pounds, cost less than $2000, and would be manufactured and released within 25 months. By creating these restrictions, the development team had to get very creative with the design of the car. This resulted in the gas tank behind located directly behind the bumper of the car. Directly behind the bumper, there were four protruding bolts; any bumper accident around 30mph would cause them to penetrate the gas tank, resulting in gasoline leaking everywhere. If any metal scraped the ground and created a spark during this process, the Ford Pinto would engulf in flames. Ford was aware of the dangers behind the Ford Pinto before they released the vehicle, they came up with a number of solutions, including having a bladder into the fuel tank. Ultimately they decided to release the Pinto without any of the safety precautions they’d thought of. Not a surprise, Iacocca is famous for quoting “Safety doesn’t sell”. The number of deaths associated with this engineering marvel ranges from 27-180 depending on the source you look at. Ford estimates that only 27 people died as a result of the Pinto, while many other places believe the results are much higher.

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2017/10/17/misunderstood-cars-the-ford-pinto/

Pinto Madness


https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a6700/top-automotive-engineering-failures-ford-pinto-fuel-tanks/

M2 – Chris McClure

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In the summer of 2017, I went to Mexico for 3 days on a humanitarian trip. The purpose of the trip was to build a new home for a mother and her two daughters, who were living in a rundown shack that animals could wonder in and out of freely. 3 weeks prior to that, I was listening to a friend give a speech requesting funding for the trip. While listening, I realized that I wanted to help in anyway that I could. After the speech, I asked him what I could do. The trip was going to cost $500 + travel. At that time, spring semester was ending and I was pretty light on cash (college isn’t cheap…), but all I knew was that I had to help. I ended up getting my first credit card (I believed that if you couldn’t pay for something in whole, then you shouldn’t buy it.) and just about maxed it out. The house did end up getting built. We weren’t construction workers; we were working with some and if you put enough nails in something, it’ll stay together.

That experience was incredibly enlightening for me, but what was most surprising was my impulsivity and desire to help. Almost everything that I do, I rationalize and make sure that it’s a good decision. In this case, I was set on doing it from the moment I’d heard about it. Kant believed that their goodness depends on the will that makes use of them (Shaw 2017). With most everything we do, there is self interest. However, during this trip, I was never concerned about anything other than to help. After everything, my bank account was pretty negative (rent, the trip, and other payments all hit at the same time), but I eventually paid it all off. In the end, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. In this scenario, I believe I expressed good will.

Shaw, William H.. Business Ethics: A Textbook with Cases (Page 57). Cengage Learning. Kindle Edition.

M1 – Chris McClure

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Our ethics are fundamental and unique qualities that have defined us since we were children. They’ve been ingrained and changed by those around us, such as our family, friends, and enemies. However, I believe that religion, government, and empathy are the underlying sculptors of our ethical position. Religion and government mold our perspective because they give us a higher power to answer to. They share similarities between each other; for example, most religions and governments forbid crimes against another human such as murder and stealing. From a very young age, no matter our religious stance or understanding of government, most of us have accepted these as wrong. How do we understand that these are wrong though? I think that has to do with our empathy.

Our moral code is constantly adapting to our understanding of the world around us. As we grow older, we bear witness to different experiences and remember their associated emotions; whether the experiences were good or bad. When we see somebody around us going through a similar experience, we remember those feelings. If we are stolen from, we remember the frustration and pain that follows. When we see another person going through that, we remember how we felt and shape our perspective of wrong vs right based on the empathy we have for them. Thus, our ethical position typically sides with our empathetic one.