Question

Connecting the ethics of pricing to our previous topic of egoism, altruism, and predation: If we ask each what the proper price for something is, do the answers look like this?

Egoism: The proper price is the price voluntarily agreed to by buyer and seller.

Altruism: Proper pricing is when the better-off party is willing to sacrifice profit for the benefit of the worse-off party.

Predation: The right price is whatever the stronger party can get, even if it means taking advantage of the worse-off party.

Answer 1

As per Egoism, the motivation or the goal of any act is oneself. As per egoism, every individual act in the benefit of their self-interests. Here, in case of pricing, since the producer or the seller set it, he would do so in his favor which is so as to maximize the profits, thus the buyers would not play an active role in this decision being another party. Thus, this example is not suitable or apt for egoism.

However, altruism says that the individuals work for the happiness or others implying that one would act in favor of other parties instead of self. So, deciding price in favor of others or buyers by reducing their own profits is an apt example of altruism.

Predation, on the other hand, is meant to suck out all the profits a seller can which is simply taking advantage of other parties (buyers here) for being weak or worse off party. So, this is also a correct example.