institution1903–present

Ford Motor Company

Disciplines:

Summary

Ford Motor Company is an American automobile manufacturer notorious for the Ford Pinto scandal, in which internal cost-benefit analysis weighed fixing a defective fuel tank against projected lawsuit payouts.

Core Contribution

Ford's Pinto cost-benefit analysis — estimating that it was cheaper to pay wrongful death settlements than to fix a $11 fuel tank flaw — became the most cited real-world example of utilitarian reasoning producing immoral corporate outcomes, used in business ethics and philosophy courses worldwide.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Pinto cost-benefit memo (calculated that saving 180 deaths at $200,000 per life was worth less than the $11 fix times 12.5 million cars — and chose not to fix)
$11 fix forgone (the repair that would have saved lives cost $11 per car — the figure that became the symbol of corporate moral callousness)
Grimshaw v. Ford (the landmark 1981 California punitive damages verdict that punished Ford for conscious disregard of consumer safety)
Utilitarian reasoning reductio (invoked in the lecture as proof that pure cost-benefit utilitarianism, without rights-based constraints, can justify murder)

Historical Influences

No recorded historical influences.

Intellectual Lineage

American automobile industry Cost-benefit regulatory analysis

Contemporaries & Peers

Philip Morris General Motors

Minds Influenced

No recorded minds influenced.

Intellectual Posterity

Corporate cost-benefit analysis ethics case study Pinto case in tort law

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