Ethics 2 Shortlist

Question 1

Characteristics of Perfectly Competitive Free Markets

Answer 1

• achieve capitalist justice, but not other kinds of justice like justice based on need
• satisfies a certain version of utilitarianism (maxes utility of market participants)
• respects moral and ethical rights

Question 2

Locke’s State of Nature

Answer 2

-all persons are free and equal -each person owns his body and labor, and whatever he mixes his own labor into -people’s enjoyment of life, liberty, and property are unsafe and insecure -people agree to form a government to protect and preserve their right to life, liberty, and property

Question 3

criticisms on Locke’s view

Answer 3

-Locke does not demonstrate that individuals have “natural” rights to life, liberty, and property -Locke’s natural rights are negative rights and he does not show these override conflicting positive rights -Locke’s rights imply that markets should be free, but free markets can be unjust

Question 4

Karl Marx’s criticizing of market and free trade

Answer 4

-capitalist systems offer only two sources of income: sale of one’s own labor and ownership of the means of production (i.e. buildings, machinery, land, and raw materials) -capitalism and its private property system creates alienation among workers

Question 5

Marx on alienation

Answer 5

-in capitalism, workers become alienated when they lose control of their own life activities and the ability to fulfill their true human needs -capitalism alienates workers from their own productive work, the products of their work, their relationships with each other, and from themselves -alienation also occurs when the value of everything is seen in terms of its market price

Question 6

Marx and private property

Answer 6

-private ownership of the means of production is the source of the worker’s loss of control over work, products, relationships, and self -productive property should serve the needs of all and should not be privately owned, but owned by everyone

Question 7

Marx’s historical materialism

Answer 7

-the methods a society uses to produce its goods determine how that society organizes its workers -the way a society organizes its workers determines its social classes -a society’s ruling social class controls society’s government and ideologies and uses these to advance its own interests and control the working classes

Question 8

Criticism of Marx

Answer 8

-Marx’s claims that capitalism is unjust are unprovable -justice requires free markets -the benefits of private property and free markets are more important than equality -free markets can encourage community instead of causing alienation -immiseration of workers has not occurred; instead their condition has improved

Question 9

oligopolistic markets

Answer 9

-major industrial markets are dominated by only a few firms -oligopolistic markets are “imperfectly competitive” because they lie between the two extremes of the perfectly competitive and monopolistic markets -unethical practices: price-fixing, manipulation of supply, market allocation, bid rigging, exclusive dealing arrangements, tying arrangements, retail price maintenance agreements, predatory price discrimination

Question 10

main views on oligopoly power

Answer 10

• do-nothing view- do nothing since power of oligopolies is limited by competition between industries and by countervailing power of large groups; oligopolies are competitive and big US companies are good international competitors
• antitrust view-large monopoly and oligopoly firms are anticompetitive and should be broken into small companies
• regulation view-big companies are beneficial but need to be restrained by government regulation

Question 11

Characteristics of Monopoly Markets

Answer 11

• can lead to ignoring the demands of caring and value of human relationships
• can encourage vices of greed and self seeking and discourage virtues of kindness and caring
• can be said to embody justice, utility, and rights only if seven defining features are present