Dont Forget About Helen By Philip Lewis Summary

In the article Don't Forget about Flint, Michigan by Philip Lewis we see a tragic situation that could have been handled more precisely. Unlike a hurricane which can’t be prevented, this water crisis could have been prevented. Coming from a Utilitarian point of view, the Flint water debate is something less than tragic. The government has put the citizens in a spot were they can’t even get clean water to do normal, daily things. Over half of Flint’s population is African American and they see it as a way of putting the less wealthy in a spot to suffer more than the rich. “The lack of political clout left the residents with nowhere to turn, no way to have their voices heard.” The government in Flint is a great example of inefficient. They …show more content…
His second point was to show how people have put the situation in the back of their minds. Thinking as a Utilitarian, the people of Flint should be irate at the government for putting them in a spot that they can’t really do anything about now. Everyone should be happy and the government should make sure that their people are all equal. There should be a difference between right and wrong and a overall balance when it comes to pleasure and pain when it comes to the water debate. Lewis’s last sentence in his article continues my argument of the government being the ones to blame. “And the government owes it to them to continue to do something about it. As of today the incident has not been at the front of people's eyes which blows my mind because if it happened to a higher populated city like New York or Los Angeles, would it be known to people …show more content…
One could say that John Rawls should be alive to address the Flint situation because he would make everyone feel equal. But if we look at the world we live in today the term Utilitarianism is not used very often and the concept is not teached regularly. So for example, if we look at the water crisis that happened in Flint, we could see that Rawls thinking wasn’t probably used. Today it is almost impossible for everyone to agree on one exact thing. There will always be someone who thinks that a different approach will be better. We also see this when it comes to wage differences, and how much money is too much. In the case of the water crisis, most of the people affected were on the lower tier of inconcome. So according to rawls, the more wealthy people should help out the people affected by the unsanitary water. We did see some celebrities like Jaden and Will smith step up and help those in need, which goes along with rawls thinking. But what about the people like Bill Gates and professional athletes who make a lot of money? Should they be the ones that follow the difference principle, and step up when people are in need? There a lot of questions out there that some can’t even answer because they can’t find the