What are consequences

           





 In general, everyone in some shape form or fashion thinks about the outcome of their actions. Whether its vaguely and brief or descriptive and elaborate it comes across your mind at some point of the day. If you do not you may be considered a sociopath (jokingly). John Stewart Mill's theory of utilitarianism is about the most straight forward answer on ethics I have seen. However, being ethical can not simply ever be "satisfying the greatest mass of people". In today's society there are so many different types of people there would be no way to satisfy "the mass". For example if 55% of people voted for slavery to be legal again in the united states and 45% did not, would slavery still be moral ? According to Mill, consequences play a big part in utilitarianism. Slavery produced good long term results, such as the South's economy. We could now mass produce crops and support ourselves. Even with those consequences many people would ultimately agree that slavery was immoral. John Stewart Mill's theory would only work in a perfect ideal society.
 
            Mill's theory oversimplified. Although you do vaguely think about your consequences, it is still hard to base every action a person makes off of them. Because a normal rational human being do not believe they can determine the future, sometimes it is hard to base actions off of desired consequences. Sometimes things turn out completely different than what it may seem .What if there is no possible to determine your consequences ? How about in a situation where you have no choice but death ? How will Mill tell one to make choices about consequences ?