PHL 205 - CONTEMPORARY MORAL ISSUES
  EXAM 2 REVIEW
SPRING 2012

CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM: What are the three fundamental rights described in the video "The Philosophy of Liberty"? How are these three rights interrelated? What is the non-aggression principle? What is government? How do minarchists like John Locke differ from anarchists in their understanding of the non-aggression principle?

According to the instructor what were the primary causes of the housing boom and bust and subsequent economic collapse? Why is it a bad explanation to blame "greed on Wall Street,"unbridled capitalism" or "speculators"? Why reasons did the instructor give that the repeal of Glass-Steagall was only a catalyst and not a cause of the global recession?

Why does Milton Friedman say that no one on earth can make a pencil? What is this statement intended to illustrate?

Define collectivism (socialism/communism) and capitalism.  According to Steve Forbes, what events in the 20th Century gave rise to the idea that collectivism works? Why is this a misinterpretation of history? How did the election of Ronald Reagan affect attitudes in the U.S.? How does Forbes defend capitalism against the charge that it is immoral? How does he argue that philanthropy and capitalism are flip sides of the same coin? According to Forbes, why is it necessary to let capitalism's inherent disruptiveness run its course? Why does he argue that capitalism is the friend of the environment? What are Forbes' three collectivist myths and five principles of prosperity?

What is the point of Bill Burrows' "Taxing Parable"?

What is money? What is the market? How is the price of an item determined in a market system? What did Adam Smith mean by the "invisible hand of the markeplace?" Rather than fine tune the machinery of the economy and make it run more efficiently, how do governments more typically create market distortions and depress production? How does the instructor argue that corporations have no power over you unless it is actually given to them by the government? Who in society does he suggest is most guilty of "greed?" Why? Why does he warn to beware of college professors? What did Founding Fathers such as Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison believe about property rights? Do the wealthy inherit most of their wealth or earn it in some way? Why is inequality the natural consequence of freedom? Who pays most of the income taxes in America? Who doesn't pay?

Explain how markets may be described as "self-correcting." Explain the concepts of economic Darwinism or "creative destruction" (a phrase coined by economist Joseph Shumpeter and described in Forbes when he talks about capitalism's inherent disruptiveness).  How might such a "hands-off" approach promote the general welfare of society?

What were Karl Marx's criticisms of capitalism? What is the communist slogan which describes how economic goods should be distributed? What is class struggle? Who are the proletariat and bourgeosie? Why didn't the worldwide violent revolution of the working class take place as Marx suggested, but only isolated worker's revolutions in countries like Russia, China, Cuba, Spain and South America? What does the instructor mean when he suggests that communism is not "scalable?" Which, if any of the major goals of the communist manifesto have been implemented in America today? What did the instructor mean when he said socialism and capitalism exist on a continuum? What does the Russian writer in Pravda have to say about current U.S. Economic Policy under Obama?

What is laissez-faire capitalism? What is "crony" capitalism? Why is it more accurately called "crony socialism" or "crony fascism"? How are "green energy" projects such as Soyndra a good example of crony socialism? What are the three ways government can fund its spending? What effect does each have on the economy? What is the Federal Reserve? What is Keyensian economics and how is it distinguished from the Austrian school? How was the $787 billion Democrat stimulus package an example of an application of the Keynesian theory? How was Cash for Clunkers also an example? " Why are economic issues moral issues?

Define the following terms: Economics, deficit, national debt and sovereign debt. What's going on in Greece, Portugal and Spain and other European countries, and how might this activity is a harbringer of things to come in this country? What brought on Greece's problems and how is the U.S. emulating them? What was the point of the whimsical Clarke & Dawe video about the sovereign debt crisis? What is the current U.S. Debt and how does it compare to GDP? What is are our total unfunded liabilities? To whom is this money owed?

In what way may Social Security be described as a Ponzi or pyramid scheme, similar to Bernard Madoff's fraudument bilking of rich Palm Beach Jewish investors? How did Chile put its retirement system on found footing? China is slowing down purchases of treasuries and Japan's is unable to buy as many in the take of the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster. What happens when they, or the rest of the world stop buying U.S. treasury bonds because they worry about being repaid? What warnings did the U.S. Government recently receive from the financial raing agency Standard & Poors?

OCCUPY WALL STREET AND THE TEA PARTY: What are the main issues of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements? What constituencies do they represent and what changes would they like to see in the country?

PRICE GOUGING: What's wrong with price-gouging according to Snyder? In what ways is raising prices morally permissible? What solution does he propose? How does price gouging have a beneficial effect, according to Zwolinski? What is Zwolinski's Non-Worseness Claim (NWC)?