Everyone Does It Must Be Right By Pani Summary

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3. According to the article, a lot of people do what Pani did. Is that a justification for his action? Explain.
The argument that "if everyone does it, it must be right", is an argumentum ad populum (argument to the people). That is, it is a fallacy that asserts that a proposition is acceptable because many people think so. Thus, just because other ex-employees take copies of their work projects with them when they leave the job, it does not mean it is either legal or acceptable. At Intel for example, Pani had an agreement with his employer not to divulge trade secrets, which included his engineering projects. With this in mind, the fact that other people do it does not justify his actions. Rather, it merely proves that other people are willing …show more content…

As an egoist who regards the ethical obligation to self as the highest priority, he was doing the right thing to get as much money as possible from both companies. Furthermore, he was insuring himself by taking the documents that proved his skills, or might even give him an advantage at AMD in the future. Unfortunately for Pani, however, he was caught. Thus, once we know the results of his actions, we can say they aren't in line with an egoist viewpoint at all, because they resulted in devastating consequences, rather than the advantages he had no doubt hoped for. If we look at Pani's case from a utilitarian point of view, his choices minimized happiness. If he had simply finished his Intel-paid vacation, left Intel, then started at AMD, while upholding his end of his employee trade secret agreement with Intel, the happiness of all stakeholders, including himself, would have been maximized.
References:
Brusseau, J. (2012). Business Ethics. Retrieved from http://jsmith.cis.byuh.edu/books/business-ethics
Gaudin, S. (2008, November 7). Former Intel engineer indicted for stealing trade secrets. Retrieved from

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