PHL 205 - CONTEMPORARY MORAL ISSUES
  FINAL EXAM REVIEW
SPRING 2013

The Final Exam is NOT optional. It is a course requirement. Unless you take all four exams, your lowest score will NOT be dropped and a "0" will be figured into your course grade. The Final must be taken at the Social Science Computer Testing Lab, Cottage Grove Center or with approved proctor during Final Exam Week beginning Monday at 8am and ending THURSDAY at 5pm. THIS IS A HARD DEADLINE; the main campus testing lab closes for the term at that time and I will be figuring course grades beginning Thursday evening. As with previous exams, a 3 x 5 card of notes is allowed.

ANIMAL RIGHTS

What's the difference between a vegetarian and a vegan? What is a "lacto-ovo" vegetarian? What sort of diet did human beings evolve to eat? In other words, what sort of diet does it appear we were "designed" to eat: herbivore, carnivore or omnivore? Are there any health risks associated with eating meat, particularly the amount of meat in the typical American diet? How does the health of the typical vegetarian or vegan compare to the health of the typical meat eater? According to evidence presented in class, can a person get all the nutrition they need to be healthy without eating meat? What nutritional deficits if any, are there in a vegan diet?

 How are the animals used to produce the meat you buy in a supermarket or eat in a restaurant typically treated? Are there any arguments against eating "free range" animals which are treated humanely? How does meat-eating affect the environment and consumption of natural resources? What is the alien analogy? What is the pet analogy? What is speciesism? What are some of the arguments presented in Peter Singer's article "All Animals Are Equal?" What does he mean by the moral principle of "equal consideration of interests"? What are some arguments are there in favor of eating meat discussed in class or in handouts? How might one respond to the argument that animals eat each other, therefore it’s OK for us to eat them? What response could one make to the argument that it’s natural for human beings to eat meat, therefore it is morally permissible?

HEALTHCARE: What are the arguments for and against health care being a right in Busch, Sanders and Peikoff? What's the difference between health care and other rights protected by the Constitution? What led to our current health care system? Why the cost of health care premiums rising? What was in the latest health care bill commonly known as "Obamacare?" What are some Constitutional issues surrounding it? What are the arguments for and against government healthcare? What solutions do Ann Coulter, John Mackey and Jeffrey Borrowdale suggest for health care?

CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM: 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 crony capitalism phoney capitalism? Why is it more accurately called "crony socialism" or "crony fascism"? How is it different from what Alexander Cohen describes as "making money"? How are "green energy" projects such as Solyndra 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? What ethical issues does deficit spending on the scale currently being practiced raise?

In what way may Social Security be described as a Ponzi or pyramid scheme, similar to the scheme with which Bernard Madoff's fraudulent bilked rich Palm Beach 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 wake 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 rating agency Standard & Poors?

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?