Utilitarian ethics follows the belief of maximizing the greatest good for the largest number of people. As utilitarianism is identified, one needs to learn that the greatest good could be based on aggregate principle or a distributive principle. The Bank of America-Merrill Lynch merger will be assessed in regards to who, what and how the greater good will be affected in this merger. Within utilitarianism, a moral philosophy is developed that focuses on the consequences of specific actions. An action is done, then observed and then analyzed. After identifying all the people that were involved, one needs to ask the question, “Do the sum of good consequences outweigh the sum of the bad consequences?” Quantify all the good and bad consequences in the scenario and if the good consequences are greater than the bad consequences then the action was moral and vice versa.
In this paper, the actions of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch merger will be discussed, evaluated and quantified with the Richard DeGeorge Utilitarian perspective. Pinpointing the stakeholders in this case will show who was direct and indirectly affected and how they were affected. Furthermore, it will be discussed the overall affect it had on society from a global perspective, reaction from competitive markets and the economic impact it created