Living the good life

In Utilitarianism, Mill states that happiness is pleasure and the absence of pain. Morally good actions are done to produce happiness. I agree with him because we never do an action to make ourselves unhappy. The Greatest Happiness Principle states an action is morally good in as much as its produces the greatest amount of happiness for greatest amount of people. People should consider this more in today’s society because one of the main causes of unhappiness is selfishness. If we did not have selfish people in the world then there would be less pain in many lives. Everybody has the possibility of living a life with little pain. If people lived by basing their action off the consequences then people would not be selfish. People often have a gut feeling about an action but they still need to think about the number of people it brings happiness to. However, everybody’s dream of happiness is becoming a millionaire with out working or going to school but if we lived a life with no pain then we would be bored. People would not be prideful for their accomplishment because there was not pain or challenges we had to overcome. A happy life is not always a completely pain free life but a life with many joyful moments and very few painful moments. Even though there are many criticisms of Utilitarianism, I agree with the ninth one that we do not always have the time to consider all of the consequences at the time of a decision. The decision for the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people is common sense based on history. For example, if I had to choose to tell a robber where all my money was that supported my family or he was going to shoot then I would have very little time to decide if I was going to lie. A consequence is not directly linked to a person but whether the decision was moral or immoral.