PHL 205
CONTEMPORARY MORAL ISSUES
SPRING 2014
  EXAM 4 STUDY GUIDE


SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: What percentage of the population are homosexuals, according recent and careful studies? What were the original motivations for states requiring a "marriage license?" In about how many states is same sex marriage legal in the U.S.? What has been the recent trend? What happened recently in Oregon regarding same sex marriage? What are the arguments for and against legalization of same sex marraige? Are there any alternatives to having marriage rules handled by the government and making peoples' individual romatnic and life partner choices subject to "the tyranny of the majority"? What did the U.S. Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas (2003) establish? What is the difference between "Gay Marriage" and "Civil Unions" or "Domestic Partnerships"? What legal benefits do heterosexual married couples enjoy which gay couples desire? What are Thomas Sowell's arguments against gay marraige and what are some responses? What do polls and recent elections indicate about what most Americans think about the concept of same-sex marriage? Is there a generational difference?

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: Which groups are targeted for special treatment by affirmative action? Which groups are not?  In general, what do affirmative action laws say must be done in college admissions, employment and the awarding of government contracts? How are they different from mere anti-discrimination laws? Who is subject to these laws? (all government agencies? all private businesses? both? only certain government agencies or particular kinds of companies?) What are some examples of actions required by government agencies, businesses and schools to meet affirmative action requirements? What is a meritocracy?

What new "diversity" policy did the instructor and economist Walter E. Williams suggest for grading? How does it relate to race and gender-based preferences? What is the difference between strong and weak forms of affirmative action? What is problematic about compensitory justifications of racial preferences and concepts of racial privilege and racial guilt? What is "economic" affirmative action? What does the American Anthropological Association have to say about the concept of race?

What was Frank Ricci's lawsuit against the City of New Haven, Connecticut about?

Why does Thomas Sowell call Affirmative Action for blacks a "grand fraud"? What are his arguments against it? When official race-based preferences were ended in the University of California system, what was the results for African-American students? What does he say about the claim that a certain "critical mass" of minorities is necessary for minority students to do well? What does he say about the argument that we need racial preferences becasue young minorities need role models?

What unintended consequences did LBJ's "Great Society" programs have?

How do black immigrants from Nigeria, Jamaica and the Caribbean fare compared with the native black population in academic and economic performance?  What are some other explanations for differences in academic and economic achievement among African-Americans besides overt discrimination or genetic differences discussed in class and cited by John McWhorter in his book Losing the Race? How might the academic and economic achievement levels of Asian immigrants support the type of explanations for racial disparity offered by McWhorter? How do blacks, Hispanics, whites and Asians rank in rates of incarceration, academic performance and out of wedlock births? What explanations were suggested by the instructor for these differences?

If you account for the higher single parenthood rate and the fact that more blacks live in the South, where wages (but also cost of living) are lower, what happens to the disparities between the wages of blacks and whites? What are some harmful effects of Affirmative Action policies?

DIVERSITY AND ACADEMIC BIAS: What arguments in favor of "rethinking diversity" does the instructor give in his article? What does he mean when he discusses diversity's "Balkanizing influence"? How does he argue that an inordinate focus on racial or ethnic identity and past discrimination divide people rather than bring them together? What notion of diversity does he support? What does the American Anthropological Association say about race?

What is the general political makeup of academia? What are some examples of academic bias cited by David Horowitz? What reasons does Horowitz give for believing that the present practices in academia are an offense to the spirit of free inquiry and violate the Constitution? What does the National Association of Scholars have to say about issues of race class and gender and the inclusion of non-Western work and work by minorities and women in campus curriculum? How does Peter Schwartz argue that the concept of diversity is itself a racist notion?

What does "Diversity" mean when used by LCC or other educational institutions or by government or industry? Does it mean skin color or national origin, or does it mean diversity of opinion and point of view? What are problems associated with a racially, ethnically and culturally mixed society? Besides making people race-conscious and aware of past and present discrimination against various groups, what other approach did the instructor suggest may in the long run prove more successful?

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 Walter Donway 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? 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?