PHIL 330

Spring 2001

T. White

FIRST PAPER

ELECTRICITY

MOST OBVIOUS ISSUES

PRODUCERS/ “MIDDLEMEN”/DISTRIBUTORS (employees and owners)

Need financial security through jobs and profits. Need just and reasonable treatment.

CONSUMERS (commercial and residential)

A variety of basic needs are able to be satisfied because of electricity (heat, cooking, safe food, clean water, sanitary conditions, life-support equipment, etc.). In some cases, this can be a matter of life and death. The availability and cost of electricity can spell the difference between solvency and bankruptcy (jobs and no jobs) for some businesses. Customers have a need for being treated with justice and fairness. They also have a need to be free from manipulation and being taken advantage of.

THIRD PARTIES (everyone affected)

The environmental dimension of this issue points to a need for health that can be compromised by an unsafe environment.

MORE SUBTLE ISSUES

Issues surrounding the contracts involved: need to have agreements kept, but need of the public to make sure that these contracts are fair and equitable.

“Responsibility” of producers and middlemen when dealing with such a critical commodity.

Need of the society for legal and economic institutions that are in place to protect the “common good.”