The picture painted by opponents of outsourcing in any industry is that of children laboring in sweatshops in Third World countries for pennies. Those same opponents may use Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance to state the outsourcing is unethical. If you step behind the veil and ask if it is ethical not knowing if your job may be the job outsourced to India or China, the answer would certainly be an emphatic no. No one would willingly choose to lose their income. However, I propose we utilize the Act Utilitarian view and the hedonistic calculus to determine the ethicality of the option. Once the calculations have been completed, we most certainly find that outsourcing in the insurance industry is most assuredly ethical. Our first addition in the calculation is Intensity, how …show more content…
The executives making the decision to outsource definitely have the please factor covered with certainty. There is no doubt that by outsourcing the claims processing and customer service piece of the industry they save millions in revenue. Creating higher benefits for shareholders, better coverage, and lower costs to their customers, is a certainty where outsourcing in concerned. They can say with certainty that by outsourcing to India and China, they keep costs low and profits high. The outsourced workers cannot say with certainty that they will never find other employment. They cannot say with certainty that the pain they feel of being outsourced is permanent. The next step in the calculation is propinquity. The pleasure felt by the outsourcing decision is not immediately felt. There is the immediate pain of letting staff go, followed by the pain of choosing the correct outsourcing company. Then there is the pain of training that staff to properly answer the customer service calls and to properly process the claims. The pleasure that results is felt later down the line. Propinquity must be marked with a negative in our