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QUESTION
In the last few years, Airbnb has become an increasingly popular option for travelers and homeowners. For those not familiar with the business model, Airbnb is a company that, for a fee, matches up short term renters with property owners. On the website, prospective customers can look at homes or apartments in a particular area, see the terms and amenities and contract for a particular amount of time, usually a few days or weeks. Home or apartment owners can screen prospective renters and set particular terms for the rental. In the last year, certain cities and/or areas have banned these transactions and claim that the Airbnb hosts are in actuality running “illegal hotels” not subject to the usual hotel health and safety regulations. Home owners are countering that they have the right to rent out the property they own.
How do you think the various theorists (utilitarian, libertarian, Rawls) would view this ban? Remember, your discussion is on the ethics of the law. Please discuss the different theories specifically.
ANSWER
The Utilitarian, Rawls, and Libertarian Views on the Ban on Airbnb in Various Parts
Although the ban on Airbnb has been held in various places, there are ethical dimensions with regard to theorists that have different opinions on the same. However, some support the ban based on specific aspects aligning with their theories. These theories are utilitarian, Rawls’, and libertarian theories.
Utilitarianism stemmed from the late 18th and 19th centuries when Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill analyzed the doctrine of ethics in relation to happiness or pleasure and unhappiness or pain (Brunon-Ernst, 2015). According to the two English philosophers and economists, utilitarianism requires that action, once performed, should be right or wrong depending on the effect it has on people. If an action brings unhappiness, it is wrong, and if it brings happiness, it is right. When closely relating to the concept of happiness and unhappiness discussed by Bentham and Stuart as utilitarian theorists, Airbnb businesses have served thousands of visitors since their commencement, and most have been satisfied with these services. Therefore, utilitarian theorists would want the ban on Airbnb to be lifted as they serve the need of people with demands for a ‘home away from home experience.
On the other hand, John Rawls, a political philosopher, came up with the theory of justice as fairness, which considers society a free space where citizens have equal rights and can cooperate within an egalitarian economic system. The sub-domain that has sequences in which the ideal theory is contained states that citizens and societies as actors are generally willing to comply with whatever principles are chosen. Since the ban on Airbnb does not threaten social conditions, Rawls’s ideal theory tends to suggest that the ban is one of the principles chosen, and the Airbnb owners as actors have to comply with these principles as a form of political cooperation (Gališanka, 2019). Nonetheless, its consequences, when analyzed from another point of view, such that the owner, renter, neighbors, community, and related businesses are considered, the ban is a much-required move as part of the regulations.
Lastly, the libertarian theorists look at aspects like the contribution to happiness for the owner, who is seeking money to pay other bills and sustain their families, and the renter, who seeks accommodation for their families during vacation and other travel functions. Therefore, utilitarianism considers the ban on Airbnb unethical. There are several libertarian points of view on the ethics of the law. According to Arnold (2003), libertarians hold individual freedom in high regard, such that issues like banning Airbnb are a violation of individual businesses. In other words, banning Airbnb is a form of coercion that is forced onto individual BnB providers. Moreover, Arnold (2003) suggests that strong rights on individual liberty and property are a party of ensuring everyone lives freely, provided they are not going against the laws of the land or those that violate the rights of others.
References
Arnold, D. G. (2003). Libertarian Theories of the Corporate and Global Capitalism. Journal of Business Ethics, 48(2), 155-173. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BUSI.0000004595.77613.ec
Brunon-Ernst, A. (2015). Utilitarian biopolitics: Bentham, foucault and modern power. Routledge.
Gališanka, A. (2019). John Rawls. In John Rawls. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674239463
