Do industries that kill more people than they employ have a right to exist?

Author: Robby Berman / Source: Big Think

• A study developed a formula to identify industries that do more bad than good.
• The U.S. coal and tobacco qualify as having a net negative value to society.
• Should we tolerate any industry that makes a profit?

Joshua Pearce of Michigan Technological University has raised an interesting question: If “The unwritten rule with industry is you get to make money if you’re a benefit to society,” what about an industry that creates more damage than good?

Should such an industry be allowed to continue operation, or should it be shut down?”

In a study just published in Social Sciences on February 18, researchers led by Pearce found: “In the singular search for profits, some corporations inadvertently kill humans. If this routinely occurs throughout an industry, it may no longer serve a net positive social purpose for society and should be eliminated.”

This said, his team’s research has resulted in a non-political, objective method for determining whether an industry warrants a “corporate death sentence.”

The factors that go into the equation

Image source: Wittawat Meunthap / Shutterstock

Pearce cites a very simple way to assess whether or not an industry does more bad than good: Does it kill more people than it employs? Pearce’s calculus is based on what he suggests are three unassailable premises, as stated in his paper:

1. Everyone has the right to life. This is explicitly called for in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the U.N. General Assembly. In addition, it is intuitively obvious that the right to life is the primary right as it is necessary to be alive to enjoy any other right (i.e., the right to work).
2. Everyone has the right to work. This is explicitly called for in Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Corporations are large companies or groups of companies authorized to act as a single legal entity (person) to efficiently generate profit for the benefit of humans, and one of their primary additional benefits is job creation. Thus, corporations help facilitate the right to work.
3. Human law should give corporations the right to exist if they are beneficial to humanity. Corporations are…

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