Utilitarianism Unfair

In discussion of the issue of utilitarianism, a controversial issue has been that utilitarianism is an unfair theory that subject’s minority to pain at the cost of majority’s happiness. This topic is relevant in today’s discussions as it surrounds the issue of smartphones that we all use so as to communicate with our loved ones and friends on social media and follow trends such as selfies and hashtags. However, do we know the story behind the creation of these smartphones? Do we buy them knowing that they are powered by child labor mines in Africa? These children work in gruesome conditions, with extreme heat or rain for a dollar per day so as to mine cobalt which is later sold to cellphone battery manufacturers in China and South Korea. The batteries are then sold to companies like Samsung, Apple and Sony; three leading companies in the production of smartphones and they profit greatly from this child labor. Now, this is why utilitarianism sounds unfair. On the other hand, however, Jeremy Bentham; an English philosopher and creator of this theory states that utilitarianism is important as: “The highest principle of morality is to maximize happiness, the overall balance of pleasure over pain.” However, my own view is that utilitarianism is a flawed theory as it does not consider each individual’s rights and states that some people

This is portrayed by a political philosopher, Michael J. Sandel in his writing titled: Justice: What’s the Right Thing to do. In this writing, Sandel states that utilitarianism only considers individual rights when “...Each person’s preference [is] counted along with everyone else’s.” This is a contradiction in itself as individualism is a concept that stands on its own and considers each human as a separate entity from the masses. Considering an individual as having rights only when his or her rights are considered as part of a larger group promotes injustice for the