Bizness Ethics Final

Matt Bruenig Quote summarizing child care subsidy

"Not everyone wants to climb the corporate ladder and not everyone can. Forcing parents to stock shelves when they'd rather watch their toddler is a victory for no one. And depriving all would-be parental child caregivers of personal income in order to nudge a handful of them into the labor market is not a sensible way to pursue equality, gender or otherwise." - he advocates for a subsidy for parents of childs regardless of whether iur irts inthe home or outside daycare. current rollout is only outside childcare, forcing parents into the workforce

Private Property explanation (marx)

"Political economy proceeds from the fact of private property, it does not explain private property"

Natural Labor (Locke)

"The 'labour' of his body and the 'work' of his hands, we may say, are properly his." - labor creates property, esp agricultural

Harm Principle (Mill)

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others."

quote from Weber

"The puritan wanted to work in a calling: we are forced to do so. For when asceticism was carried out of monastic cells into everyday life, and began to dominate wordly morality, it did its part in building the tremendous cosmos of the modern economic order. This order is now bound to the technical and economic conditions of machine production which today determine the lives of all the individuals who are born into this mechanism, not only those directly concerned with economic acquisition, with irresistible force."

Green on wealth:

"all wealth belongs to God, who apportions it to humanm beings as caretakers and stewards."

Division of Labor (Adam Smith)

*Separation of the production process* into distinct stages using several people rather than one worker producing the entire good/service - creates efficiency and productivity - markets and self-interest stimulate this

the religious salesperson (ahmad)

- "He will not make the excuse that since his customer has voluntarily chosen a course harmful to the self, his pandering has no moral significance" - "Good salesmanship requires that we relate the benefits of free markets to the needs of the people we wish to embrace them." - Christians would prohibit polygamy and allow liquor, muslims the opposite, libertarians would stop the state from interfering (religious freedom)

commodification of black bodies (townes)

- "it is an unyielding fact that black bodies were considered property for the better part of the history of the Americas" - turned into commodification of identity, reduced to exchange values and for the economic gain of others not in the community

Act vs. Rule (Paeth)

- Act (deontological): more on inherent indiv actions (Kant, general adherance) - Rule (consequentialist): following rules or things that cause good outcomes (Mill)

Dads still getting leisure time, women subsidizing it (Jessica Grose)

- Homecare still is a topic of profound inequities - When wife is breadwinner, equal men/women care of children (only time!) - Women seem to work more at home, esp when make more money, in order to help men feel better about themselves - Women doing extra month of unpaid labor, men extra month of leisure - Problem of the gender gap is what men have to do/change attitude, not women

Papal teachings (Leo XIII, Pope John Paul II, Pope Francis)

- Leo's was during the new age of industrial capitalism, we should promote common good and social justice. includes: worker's dignity, just wages, unionization, private property, limited state, solidarity of local issues - John Paul's was on human labor. includes: dignity of work, priority of person and property, just wages, technology should serve humans not dehumanization, we should recognize unpaid work, nations should work together - Francis was about spreading joy and hope from the gospel. includes: tech can now serve welfare, eliminate inequality from economy, against trickle-down economics, idolatry of money, against all for profit economies and too much debt on countries, market system should serve rather than rule, help human beings

Liberty and Confusion (Constant)

- Revolution for liberty today can cause evils (e.g. French Rev) - What do the French Rev ideals mean, liberty, equality, fraternity?

Teleology

- Thomas Aquinas, catholic thought and aims of life. "natural law," - consequentialism to utilitarianism, greatest good to greatest number

Ingrid Mattson's islamic view of consumption

- Three pillars of consumption: what is consumed must be lawful and wholesome, give the poor a share of one's wealth (zakat), and don't be wasteful (this includes overly extravagant/expensive stuff) - new technologies often hurt poor ppl with externalities - environmental costs should be put on seller

State of Nature (Locke)

- Without civil authority or obligation - naturally people have rights and property, govt should come in to protect and fix disputes

Ascetic Protestantism (Max Weber)

- a theology based on self-denial of spontaneous enjoyment and worldly pleasure, related to puritans. they were suspicious of wealth and possessions. - instead, to please god, have the protestant work ethic, and always be busy - paradox: if labor is so important, why have a suspicion of wealth? - original ascetics were monks with vocations, after reformation, now more ppl

patterned account (nozick)

- accounts nozick opposes, where there is a natural dimension or order (like class difference, he's against giving old people ones first). not what they've earned, but structure of a pattern. Justice based on this by the state is always interference or theft! -- (opposition is roads, govt, etc, also care like kittay)

Wages (Adam Smith)

- based on supply and demand of market economy, but also skill and competition - need minimum wage for standard of living!

Immaturity (Mill)

- believes some people need oversight if they are no mature, like children and underdeveloped societies - e.g. "a lunatic, an idiot, an infant," only time when paternalism is ok

Does work = life? (Lind)

- can you have a good life with a bad job? - yes, companies used to take labor in exchange for social security. americans could b fine off low-paying jobs with rise of social benefit (was good when companies could provide welfare state) - but now: new problem social system is hybrid. what is the relationship between work and life with our new gig economy, where people work multiple jobs, they are less defined, and switch jobs quicker?

The difference critique (kittay)

- cannot use differences to adjust accordingly between men and women - but can't be gender neutral, but have equity in starting positions (dominance critique)

Papal critiques of marxism

- class conflict isn't inevitable, we should be unified and supportive - we need to preserve private property as long as you consider public good to prevent tyranny

Modern Liberty (Constant)

- comes from larger states of peace, when commerce replaced war - new private middle class - choice in private life, e.g. profession, association, opinion, property. individual over public good - private pleasures - choice to not participate in govt.

Ancient Liberty (Constant)

- could come after monarchies and existed in smaller states - freedom to participate and make a difference in civic and political duty, public good over individual - only those with power though had influence, not slaves, poor ppl, women, etc - athens and roman republic

Gutierrez as catholic theologian

- critique of development, says Western countries shouldn't create mirror images in Latin America by importing capitalism - need social revolution within communities to create wealth equality (more socialist)

Market Metaphors (Julie Nelson)

- current metaphors are dangerous, like inhuman machine. economies are for us, by us - classical model: pro-business, mechanical, values, productivity - alternative models: anti-business, small biz, need lots of regulation, focuses on human life and little man - her model: combine biz ethics and do heart: circulation, but also love and care

Tyranny of the Majority (Mill)

- democratic societies might take away the rights of minorities, so minorities need it safegaurded

Contextual/Virtue (fitting)

- doing the right thing, right time, right way - mean of extremes, wisdom - subjective judgment

Principles of Justice (Rawls)

- equality: final equality of rights and duties (related to veil) - difference: allows inequalities but must be redressed to the least advantaged's benefit. fixes scandal of accidents

Correlation between Inequality and Harm (Atkinson and Pickett)

- even if average income is overall increasing, inequality is increasing - harms associated with less relative income: child well-being, physical health, depression, obesity - related to lower self-esteem - although its correlation not necessarily causation

Errors in Linblom's Thinking

- everything today isn't always formed through incrementalism and without a precise coordinator, e.g. language also is long learning process, and we have deep cultural practices that are no so centralized - places of authority do coerce in parts of life - are we more free with a market society, or more held back? (sandel)

MLK jr. (protestant)

- fact of globalization (neighbor love and good samaritans) - we have resources necessary to fix inequality, so moral duty to do so - we need to work together because any divisions hurt society as a whole - "The good and just society is neither the thesis of capitalism nor the antithesis of Communism, but a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism"

Privacy (Mill)

- freedom of conscience - govt. shouldn't interfere except when harming

Coordination and Cooperation (Lindblom)

- govt should prevent injury/keep peace + organize welfare - even fighting is cooperation - without human coordination humans are animals, ignorant, malnurished, depraved, etc

Scarcity (Lindblom)

- hidden by payments or rules - cooperation is harder when things are scarce, but more important (why market system excels, think economic theory of allocation)

Fantastic Hegemonic Imagination (townes)

- imagination not obvious to anyone not part of culture, and its wishful but delusional, and its born into it - think abt jemima - not everyone susceptible, e.g. we don't think of old white men as colonel sanders

Respect (Harry Frankfurt)

- inequality v.s. respect - "If a person has enough resources to provide for the satisfaction of his needs and his interests, his resources are entirely adequate; their adequacy does not depend in addition upon the magnitude of the resources that other people posses" - real issue: "moral imperative of respect" - the aim of egalitarianism is derivative of this, regardless of any other factors (impartiality)

Sympathy (Adam Smith)

- innate moral sense, based on moral judgement - ppl seek it for pleasure in mutual, and its an impartial spectator - creates a manner of judging and eventually morals from difference in sentiments - connected sometimes to self-interest and assesment - thus the market system is driven by self-interest (invisible hand, pro-business, machine model)

Historical context of capitalism and islam (robert hefner)

- intense conflict with west/christianity - media focus on violence - historically riba has been anti-commercial capitalist - industrial capitalism tricky for how much govt. should b involved, but also entrepreneurs can benefit society - muslims should engage in democratic capitalism as long as cooperate with the west and end this overarching conflict - worries about new reformers overly integrating politics, capitalism, and religion

Mahmad Shaltout's Islamic Dealings

- islam codifies life - bride contracts are more commercial than theologian - there should be gender roles - caliphate government - personality and independence within social structure as protected by private property - money is a piece of tech we use to better ourselves

How islam relates to commerce and business ethics (Ahmad)

- islam created by a merchant - life isn't punishment, its a trial, so how u use wealth - property is extension of self - contracts are very important, but there are limits (informed consent) - islamic society struggled bc overstepped. we should limit govt - Quran is against corporations. the ppl are responsible ( - Quran is against riba, or undo interest - leftists confuse imperialism and capitalism, but we should prevent elite from controlling wealth

Kittay's equality

- it's more than just capable white males need (not just a share of the pie) - rawls + care

time-slice account (nozick)

- judging based on specific moment in time (nozick thinks not good)

Papal critiques of capitalism

- kills ppl (we need to keep in check) - financial systems sometimes enslave (it should serve, e.g. julie nelson) - ppl can become idols (individuals should keep in check)

Nussbaum's capabilities central to an inclusive, human life (can b voluntarily given up)

- life - bodily health - bodily integrity - senses, imagination, and thought - emotions - practical reason - other species - affiliation - play - control over environment (political and economic)

Mill on laissex-faire principle

- limits of govt. reg? - advise vs. command - govt presumes non-interference but must use harm principle - govt should manage but not center of society, e.g. exception of education

utility perception (Adam Smith)

- looking at things for their use or purpose, so might b close to sentiment of approbation (praise), bc actions of purpose are morally praised

Markets As Coordinators

- mammoth coordinator, responsible for slavery --> labor, feudalism's end - creates predictability - often ppl associate markets with competition, more often its simply cooperation - allows us to trust strangers and know more people

Deontology

- morality under cristian theory - catagorical imperative by Kant - justice as fairness

the diversity critique (kittay)

- must address difference among men within, and women within - question: since men are different in class, capability, etc, which do women want to be equal to? it doesn't work like that, we have to take in diversity into account

Eugene McCarraher and "You're a slave to money, then you die"

- myth of neoliberalism: "Neoliberalism sees entrepreneurial selves cast in the image and likeness of the market" - economic language contains religious language

Jewish ethics are pro-capital and pro-credit (Green) exceptions

- need oversight though when competition hurts disadvantaged (no too high prices) - preservation of the environment - can't bystand - caveat emptor not true (protect buyers) - don't profit off others' vices - no failure to disclose - things beyond the law --> self-interest can be laudable but there is obligation to others and society

counter-memory (townes)

- not rejection of history, but reconstitution of history - find alternatives to the way histories are told (kinda like zinn), and also not replacing them

Modern Market System Dimensions (Lindblom)

- people's compulsion comes from compensation, not the state, coercion, or violence - our capitalism is private-owned - we shifted away from communism bc of bureaucratic lethargy/excess partisanship/poor central planning - efficient and precise, but cruel behemoth coordinator

why women are degraded (wollstonecraft)

- perpetual cycle of financial security and dependence - subjugation from focusing on having manners and not speaking up - forced into roles like w/ beauty

Protestant work ethic into society (Weber)

- ppl adopted this work ethic for other vocations - but intrinsic benefit of work came from if you work hard and produce results - some trapped in an "iron cage," bc idleness seems bad - problem: since now separated from religion, what is all this work for?

Nozick's Three Principles of Just Understanding of Holdings (entitlement theory, fair exchange)

- principle of acquisition: acquiring stuff for urself, fair - principle of transfer: giving stuff away, distribution - principle of rectification: injustice of the above two

Women's change (Wollstonecraft)

- shouldn't be intoxicated by men's affection - need to drop their superlatives and elegance, instead seek virtue

bourgeois (Marx)

- social class that controls the means of production. money makes money. - creates a world after its own image with the market and private property - their own gravediggers

What men do (wollstonecraft)

- spend more time justifying their own prejudices than enacting change for the better - make their personalities based on profession

Clement of Alexandria on "the rich man's salvation"

- text in gospel about jesus saying give up all possessions. clement thinks less literal and more spiritual - all about inner change and ridding internal desire - wealth is not for your enjoyment, but rather an instrument to help others - you shouldn't just fling away wealth, use it

Poverty (Telushkin)

- the greatest suffering, but always part of human condition - help them as never condemned by god (save sm drowning, only when a non-believer might b better)

Communists (Marx)

- they serve the working class, and trying to overthrow bourgeois supremacy (which is natural to happen) - want abolition of private property, family gain, and nationalism

Market Society (Sandel)

- transactional view of market system has reached into all aspects of life, on a broader level than economist theory - since kinda 1800s

Motives for Charity (Telushkin)

- true altruism is best - then anonymity (better if recipient doesn't know donor) - then without ask - then what is not enough - then pleasantly - worst is without above

Charity from Preeminent Command (Telushkin)

- tzedeka (includes justice) more than caritas, ppl are deserving of charity - refusing to give charity as rich ppl is stealing, and also idolatry (bc u worship money instead of god)

Care (kittay)

- we all need to care for each other, not just women as caregivers

dependency critique (kittay)

- we are all dependents, both when we're born and about to die

Leisure (Josef Pieper)

- we find ourselves as fundamentally laborers, using vacation as a way to "recharge" - "we are unleisurely to have leisure." j have leisure! - we use effort to define value, and find joy somehow in exertion. though effort can still b in leisure - but not everything is useless, we can find value in leisurely contemplation - difference between training and education? education used to b outside business and thus leisurely in ancients - psalm: "be still and know that I am God" means "have leisure"

universalist (nussbaum)

- we have universal capabilitiesthat should all be allowed, and even if there are differences, we should realize them and revise - go against the relativists that thinks norms differ everywhere - human is the most fundamental maker of choices, and we should be given everything to make that good, informed choice

Constant's Thoughts

- we need a representative system, best for a hybrid def. of liberty of political agency + privacy - need both individual pleasures but also political influence - ancients people are limited, modern ppl r lost in the multitude or away from civic duty

Principle of Doulia (kittay)

- we need to care for those who care for others

Depths of Despair (Jon Malesic)

- white working class men starting to have higher death rates, suicide and just depression causing harm w/ opioids from not making enough money / successful job (now includes hispanic and black males) - work doesn't promise the social and spiritual value it should anymore, esp with automation/AI replaicing meaninggul jobs. we now only have BS jobs - robots change how we look at jobs, crisis point approaching

Rao on women breadwinners

- women do more housework than in 60s - women breadwinners still do more work - seems a need to affirm gender roles

Asymetrical gender revolution (Rao)

- women just being like men is not right. Men have to also care (change everyone's relationship) kinda similar to kittay - "Until Americans turn their attention to the home, where gender inequality remains deeply protected by old-school social norms, they will have an incomplete picture of the problem and incomplete solutions for addressing it. Addressing the gender gap at home can often be more difficult than in the workplace, since the issue is of inequality between spouses, not colleagues."

proletariat (marx)

- working class - includes lower middle class - stronger in mass, also universal suffering

Green's Jewish Business Ethics principles

1. legitimacy of business activity and profits 2. divine origin and ordination of wealth 3. Decision-making given to preservation and protection of human life 4. protection of consumers from commercial harm 5. moral requirement to beyond letter of the law

Alienation of labor (Marx)

Alienated labor serves no value to the laborers creating the products under a wage, and the person separated from the product. Laborers become commodities, valued not on their work, but compared to others in a labor market. As such, they become more of a commodity the harder and more they work, and devalue themselves for being better, because they are getting paid the same as a bad worker for even a better product. Makes people no longer human and simply physical, from unskilled labor in the privatized market system. - eventually creates alienation of self (exploiting others) and alienation of other ppl (can't relate/be common to them)

Ideal Consumer (Tsvi Blanchard)

Consumption can complete creation and cultivate holiness. Consuming means desacrilizing smt when you take it, so then consuming the thing needs to be sanctified (with blessings) So ideal consumer should: 1. sanctify (grateful by prayer) 2. reflect + critique 3. mend the world "we must at one and the same time both celebrate and work to radically transform the consumer society" "the paradoxical nature of all living holiness"

Property (Locke)

Land is initially held in common in the State of Nature. Labor endows ownership, however it is limited by laws against spoilage and hoarding

inviolability of persons (Rawls)

People have inherent moral worth and dignity, so everyone must be treated with respect and consideration, so certain rights and liberties

Political Power (Locke)

Political Power: "political power, then, I take to be a right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defense of the commonwealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good"

Three types of normative ethical theories (Paeth)

Right: deontology, duties, obligation, overarching Good: goals, ends, outcomes, teleology Fitting: appropriate cause of action in spec. situations, virtue

Meritocracy

a system in which promotion is based on individual ability or achievement

Descriptive vs. Normative Ethics (Paeth)

analysis of actual beliefs and theories we engage in v.s. assessing rightness of ideas or actions

Margalins

anthropologists that nussbaum says freak out when she says we should turn societies moral with sorta western values. she wants people to be able to flourish, but not just capacities to live, bc ur own preferences can be malformed by society

State of Our Political Economy (marx)

commoditized workers with misery and competition that puts wealth in few hands, creating two classes of capitalist + laborers

Punishment (Locke)

have to hold others accountable for greed, revenge, etc. and destruction of property

Adam Smith and Self Interest

he thinks self-interest is good for society

historical account (nozick) (statue of limitations e.g., other two too)

look at the historical events of the account and how it got there, judge those events based on fairness (kinda timeline)

Niebuhr's critiques of marxism and capitalism (protestant)

marxism: too optimistic, after revolution we wouldn't live in harmony capitalism: too individualistic based on idea we need protection from others, we should be afraid of ourselves - he thinks now enough wealth in world for no one to go to bed hungry

Freedom (Locke)

men are born equal in rank, so shall not harm another's life, health, liberty, possessions

role of the state (wollstonecraft)

need it to change private sphere and enact this change

Nozick's scandal

scandal of taking, he likes accidents. e.g. you win the lottery, you should keep it! - example is wilt chamberlain, bball player

Locke's view of colonialism

settlers are justified because they create agriculture (kinda flawed), and that they make the world better. he leaves out hunter-gatherers as forms of labor, so native land wasn't actually theirs

Marriage (wollstonecraft)

should be equal and out of affection, making women rational mothers and not mistresses (makes it so people don't cheat)

Kittay and the market

the system of the market as we understand it and the system of society is blind to the structures of care on which it depends but which it completely rules out of bounds as an object of direct concern and so even before we think about getting more people into that system in an equitable way we have to reconceive what equity means in this context

Townes and the market

we're thinking with Townes about a community of people who not only are in some sense outside of the system but the system has profited on their exclusion and exploitation, what kind of relationship should they take to this economic system, given its fundamental history of predating upon their bodies and then their identities?

Education of Women (Wollstonecraft)

women need to be educated in order to be companion of man and teacher of children, because they grow up in society and need virtue too (so women need virtue). "To see half of the human race excluded from govt is impossible to explain"