Good Accountant from a Utilitarian Perspective

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A good accountant from a utilitarian perspective would assess how the organization is creating and maximizing utility. Utility can be defined in many ways but a concise description is utility is the happiness added by a certain activity. This utility would be assessed all by values as utilitarians try to attach value created to every decision they make. Non-financial information is not important for good accountants to worry about, only financial information that is important for societal value. As long as the organization is maximizing the utility with the decisions they make, the good utilitarian accountant should not worry themselves with the moral implications of the decisions they made. This is because moral decisions should be based on the "ends" not the "means." One way decisions can be assessed by a good accountant is to see what utility the other decisions would have brought the society. In this way, there can be a valuation for utility opportunity costs that can help users determine the impact of management's decisions. Any opportunity costs that lower overall utility created show that utility is not being maximized. Accountants in our current society have a lot in common with the utilitarian perspectives view of good accountants. Typically, accountants look to valuate as much as possible and see themselves as gatekeepers of financial information based on objective methods. However, accountants in our society do have an interest in the "means" as well as the "ends." Describe what a "Good Accountant" would look like from a deontological perspective. A good accountant from a deontological perspective would apply accounting rules that are general in nature and would use these rules in all situations. To decide on the accounting rules that should be put into place, the accountant should look at similar situations for the type of transaction. With

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