Why Is Utilitarianism Wrong

Utilitarianism is defining an action as wrong if there are other available acts that benefit everyone affected more. Utilitarian’s decide whether an action is right or wrong based on how much joy or happiness it brings to an individual and everyone else. This can be tricky because an action may not actually be considered right just because it brings you joy. Robbing a bank could bring someone a lot of joy and money but that does not make it morally right, and it would affect those around you in a negative way witch would cause an unequal balance of happiness. They believe that the standard of right or wrong comes from happiness or pleasure, so if happiness is good then it must be right. Let’s say you have 3 different choices for an action,

In an Egoistic society it says that you should do whatever is best for you and disregard others around you. The action is considered right if it affects you positively and brings you happiness. Unlike utilitarianism every decision you make is selfishly only about your happiness not anyone else. For example, if you wanted to cut all of your worker’s salary in half in order to increase your salary verses not cutting them and keeping your salary where it is, this would be wrong to not do what would benefit you more regardless of how it affects those around you. In the eyes of an egoistic society cutting your workers would seem morally right because you are benefiting greatly from it, thus increasing your happiness and joy. Some strengths of this theory is that every time you make a decision you won’t have to worry about others because it doesn’t matter, as long as you are happy that’s beneficial enough. In the end this type of society will crash and burn because when everyone is just focused on their self, there is no real reason to follow any type of rules because the justification for right and wrong is according to how much happiness it brings you and only