Chapter 11 Homework

1- Define job discrimination.
2- As to evidence of job discrimination, comment the role of occupations.
3- Regarding Affirmative Action, comment (a) the legal context, (b) the Supreme Court's position.
4- In examining the arguments in favor and against Affirmative Action, pick your best in both instances and justify why.
5- What is sexual harassment?
6- Go over the textbook recommendation for dealing with sexual harassment.

Our final exam will be Wednesday, April 27@ 8am

Chapter 10: Homework

1- What is a conflict of interest?
2- What does abuse of official position mean?
3- Comment "insider trading," proprietary data and trade secrets.
4- What is a bribe... a kickback?
5- Talk about "grease payments" and the FCPA.
6- Comment the 7-point guidelines on gifts.
7- What is "whistle blowing" and what motivates whistle blowing?
8- Go over the 5-point guideline to justify whistle blowing. Mention the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Is factory farming ethical? (Post for comment)

Manure run-off from factory farms (is this not toxic waste?)

In this course we address "issues in the workplace." And in the case of factory farming, we certainly have a number of issues, first, toward animals, such as overcrowding, de-beaking, inhumane culling,* and then those health-related problems that may affect us in consuming these animal products ("intensive" growth production, with hormones and then antibiotics and pesticides to fight diseases).

So, what is factory farming? Read here, about ethical consequences of factory farming:

Factory farms hold large numbers of animals, typically cows, pigs, turkeys, or chickens, often indoors, typically at high densities. The aim of the operation is to produce as much meat, eggs, or milk at the lowest possible cost. Food is supplied in place, and a wide variety of artificial methods are employed to maintain animal health and improve production, such as the use of antimicrobial agents, vitamin supplements, and growth hormones. Physical restraints are used to control movement or actions regarded as undesirable. Breeding programs are used to produce animals more suited to the confined conditions and able to provide a consistent food product.

FACT

1- Food animals on factory farming facilities produce an enormous amount of waste. A dairy farm with 2,500 cows produces as much waste as a city of 411,000 people (60). 2- Food facts are that there are NO regulations for the treatment of animal waste from factory farming, which contains methane and nitrous oxide gases - both many times more toxic and warming than CO2. Liquid animal waste often spills over from holding lagoons into local soil and waterways. 3- Fish farming is called "aquafarming", and this squanders natural resources too - it can take 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce just 1 pound of farmed fish. Aquafarming operations pollute the environment with tons of fish feces, antibiotic-laden fish feed, and diseased fish carcasses.

The large concentration of animals, animal waste, and the potential for dead animals in a small space poses ethical issues. It is recognized that some techniques used to sustain intensive agriculture are cruel to animals. As awareness of the problems of intensive techniques has grown, there have been some efforts by governments and industry to remove inappropriate techniques (...) In the UK, the Farm Animal Welfare Council was set up by the government to act as an independent advisor on animal welfare in 1979. It expresses its policy as five freedoms: from hunger & thirst; from discomfort; from pain, injury or disease; to express normal behavior; from fear and distress.

There are differences around the world as to which practices are accepted and there continue to be changes in regulations with animal welfare being a strong driver for increased regulation. For example, the EU is bringing in further regulation to set maximum stocking densities for meat chickens by 2010, where the UK Animal Welfare Minister commented, "The welfare of meat chickens is a major concern to people throughout the European Union. This agreement sends a strong message to the rest of the world that we care about animal welfare.”

For example, in the UK, de-beaking of chickens is deprecated, but it is recognized that it is a method of last resort, seen as better than allowing vicious fighting and ultimately cannibalism. Between 60 and 70 percent of six million breeding sows in the U.S. are confined during pregnancy, and for most of their adult lives, in 2 by 7 ft gestation crates. According to pork producers and many veterinarians, sows will fight if housed in pens. The largest pork producer in the U.S. said in January 2007 that it will phase out gestation crates by 2017. They are being phased out in the European Union, with a ban effective in 2013 after the fourth week of pregnancy. With the evolution of factory farming, there has been a growing awareness of the issues amongst the wider public, not least due to the efforts of animal rights and welfare campaigners.

For more information about ethical problems of factory farming, read here.
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Overcrowding: Egg laying hens in cage free operations are typically crowded by the thousands in large barns, with approximately one square foot of space allotted each bird. “Cage free” laying hens are not required to have access to the outdoors, and for “free range” and “free roaming” hens, access to the outdoors can be severely restricted and poorly designed. Under these labels, there are no limits on flock size and their outdoor area may be little more than a barren dirt lot that is difficult for them to access.
De-beaking: Virtually all hens slated for egg production have the ends of their beaks removed without anesthesia, causing both acute and chronic pain.
Inhumane culling: Commercial hatcheries supply hens to both factory farms and smaller egg farms, and the male chicks are unwanted and treated as a waste product. Common methods of killing and disposal include suffocation and being ground up alive. When egg laying hens’ productivity declines and they are no longer profitable to the egg industry, they are sent to slaughter or otherwise killed.

I'll close this post this Friday at 11pm.

Violence in the workplace

The horrible death of Yale student Annie Le brings up the question, how common is work violence?

Gossip in the workplace

How bad is gossip in the workplace?

The earlier studies found that once someone made a negative comment about a person who wasn’t there, the conversation would get meaner unless someone immediately defended the target. Otherwise, among both adults and teenagers, the insults would keep coming because there was so much social pressure to agree with the others.

Topics for Quiz #2

Chapter 6
(Most of these terms I'm getting from the Study Corner on p. 326 of the textbook)

McPherson vs Buick. Due care. Caveat Emptor. Strict Product Liability. Legal Paternalism.Government regulation vs. Self-regulation. 6-point guidelines for business responsibility. Merchantability. Warranties, express and implied. Price fixing. Price Gouging. Under the subtitle "labeling and packaging" take a look at words such as "recyclable", "fairly traded," "total carbs." "pure squeezed 100% orange juice," "sustainable," etc. Deceptive techniques in advertising: Ambiguity. Concealment of facts. Exaggeration. Psychological appeals.

Chapter 8
Job screening. Job description. Job specification. Americans with Disabilities Act. Test validity, test reliability. Dur Process. Promotion vs. seniority. Inbreeding. Nepotism. 7-point guideline for better wager. History of the Union Movement: AFL-CIO, Warner Act. Knights of Labor. Conditions for a justified strike. Direct Strike. Sympathetic Strike. Boycotts and Campaigns.

Chapter 9
Off-the-job conduct. Informed consent. Polygraph tests, 3-assumptions and 3 point for polygraph use. Personality tests. Monitoring employees on the job. 4-point on Drug Testing.Assumption of risk. Right to refuse dangerous work.  OSHA. Job Stress. Job Satisfaction. Hawthorne Effect.

Chapter 9: Homework

1- Define "legitimate" and "illegitimate influence."
2- What's "informed consent."
3- Describe the three most common assumptions about polygraph tests. What are the 3 points addressing moral concerns about polygraph tests.
4- About drug testing, explain the four remarks on page 484.
5- How does the text approach the issue of "day care" and "maternity leave"?
6- What's the Hawthorne effect?

Could you be fired for bad-mouthing your boss on facebook? (post for comment)

Yes. Read it here. I'd like you to write a post on this topic, which has to do with workers' rights vs. the interests of the corporation beyond the workplace. Who do you side with and why? Develop your argument. Go ahead!

I'll close this post next Friday, March 11 at 11pm.

Homework, Chapter 6

1. Why is MacPherson v. Buick Motors an important case concerning consumer protection?
2. Explain "due care" and "strict product liability."
3. Why is the 1972 Consumer Safety Act important?
4. Define "legal paternalism."
5. Being that as offering product safety either you regulate yourself or somebody else does, do you think self-regulation is better than government regulation? Explain.
6.Regarding the responsibility of business, go over the 6-point suggestion on pa. 302-303
7. Explain the following: (a) "manipulative pricing" (b) price fixing, (c) price gouging,
8. As we know, business ads can be deceptive. Give examples of the following: (a) concealment of facts, (b) exaggeration, (c) psychological appeals.
9. Should ads be directed at children? Which brings the next question, are children "consumers"?
   

In case you have any questions regarding the exam

Link for the textbook

Link for Moral Issues in Business.

$6.5 million for hemorrhoid removals??

From Yahoo News:  Federal authorities charged more than 100 doctors, nurses and physical therapists in nine cities with Medicare fraud Thursday, part of a massive nationwide bust that snared more suspects than any other in history.

More than 700 law enforcement agents fanned out to arrest dozens of people accused of illegally billing Medicare more than $225 million. The arrests are the latest in a string of major busts in the past two years as authorities have struggled to pare the fraud that's believed to cost the government between $60 billion and $90 billion each year. Stopping Medicare's budget from hemorrhaging that money will be key to paying for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

The idea behind Medicaid was to help eligible individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It's a program intended to help the needy: funded by federal and states budgets. We taxpayers pay for the program. Fraud is a way to exploit the system, which in turn ends up making the system more difficult to support. 

Of course criminals don't stop for a second to think the social repercussions of their actions. That's a given. But then, they are not smart enough to make it more difficult for authorities to see it. Take the case of Dr.  Boris Sachakov from Brooklyn as an example: 

A Brooklyn, N.Y., proctologist was charged with billing $6.5 million for hemorrhoid removals, most of which he never performed. Dr. Boris Sachakov claimed he performed 10 hemorrhoid removals on one patient, which authorities said is not possible. An employee who answered at Sachakov's office declined comment Thursday. Sachakov had been arrested last year on charges related to a separate scam. Sachokov denied the charges.

This individual is a white-collar criminal and pretty bad at it. How could someone be so stupid to charge $6 million for hemorrhoid removals that were not performed? What can make someone so blind by greed that he can risk loosing everything? Money.

I'll close this post on Thursday, February 24 @ 11pm.

How low can people fall to enrich themselves

Photo: New York Times

According to this New York Times article, a former Pennsylvania judge went on trial in federal court on Tuesday, charged with racketeering, bribery and extortion in what prosecutors say was a $2.8 million scheme to send juvenile delinquents to privately run prisons.

The case against the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., who presided in Luzerne County, drew national attention for what legal experts say is a dangerous gap in the juvenile justice systems of many states — children appearing in court without lawyers. Mr. Ciavarella, now 60, sentenced thousands of young people, funneling them into two private detention centers prosecutors say were run by his friends who slipped him payments in a "cash for kids" scheme.

Professor Lawrence Tribe from Harvard sees it as a "Terrible lesson which highlights the dangers for juveniles who don't know their rights, haven't talked to a lawyer and are urged by overburdened courts to take a plea. Once that happens, future opportunities for the child are essentially gone." 

In court here on Tuesday, Gordon Zubrod, an assistant United States attorney, portrayed Mr. Ciavarella's actions over seven years as a plot to enrich himself. William Ruzzo, a lawyer for Mr. Ciavarella, denied the charges.
_________

Now, the charges against Ciavarella are bribery (i.e., an act implying money or gift given that changes the behavior of the recipient), and racketeering (i.e., a criminal demands money from a business in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes that the racketeers themselves instigate if unpaid). 

The saddest part in all this is the price Ciavarella was willing to pay, that of sending probably innocent young man to jail.

I'll close this post Tuesday February 15 @ 11pm.

Homework, Chapter 3

1- In the context of Chapter 3 define:
a) justice, b) equality, c) rights (positive and negative)
2- Explain the utilitarian view of justice and its economic distribution.
3- Explain the Libertarian approach and its theory of distribution.
4- Explain the liberal approach and its economic distribution.

Egypt's revolution and its possible aftermath

The topic is the popular uprising in Egypt, going on its seventh day.

Egypt is not a monarchy (like Saudi Arabia, where incidentally women have no voting rights). Egypt is a –sort of- democracy: a perverse system that has kept the same government in power since 1981 (in the US we’ve had 5 presidents since!). How to fake an election? 1- Ban opposition parties (such as the Muslim Brothers),* 2- and rig results, which invariably -and overwhelmingly- end up supporting President Mubarak's Party. 3- Use "terror" as a weapon of dissuasion and conformity. Mubarak has used the terror card of Muslim fundamentalism as a political weapon to rule out opposition. The formula reads: "If I'm not in charge, there will be terror" (in fact, many governments balk at the possibility that Egypt’s crisis could descend into a sort of theocracy like Iran's).

Yet, the democratic argument is that sovereign people should build their own political future at the polls (meaning that voting is free and anonymous, something that does not happen in many cases).

Revolutions are great moments in history, but they're also highly unstable. So the question for many is, will this Egyptian revolution bring greater democracy to its people or would it replace Mubarak's dictatorship with a different kind of despotism?

What do you think? Go ahead!

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*A part of the ideology of the Muslim Brothers is establishing an Islamic State based on Shari'a law and the rejection of Western influence. In this case, religion and the State are inseparable, as is the case in Iran. Recently, the organization has taken steps to incorporate greater pluralism, but many people are still skeptical of the true intentions of the organization.

Post your comment here

I'll close the comments window next Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 11pm.

A former senior Swiss bank executive said on Monday that he had given the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, details of more than 2,000 prominent individuals and companies that he contends engaged in tax evasion and other possible criminal activity

This piece of news in the New York Times:

Rudolf M. Elmer, who ran the Caribbean operations of the Swiss bank Julius Baer for eight years until he was dismissed in 2002, refused to identify any of the individuals or companies, but he told reporters at a news conference that about 40 politicians and “pillars of society” were among them.

According to the article, "those named in the documents come from 'the U.S., Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia — from all over,' and include 'business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates — from both sides of the Atlantic.'" ¹

How should one react to this new development? Obviously, 1) Rudolf Elmer has committed the gravest of sins: to violate Switzerland's strict banking secrecy laws. 2) Wikileaks has gotten more oxygen: compromising data. Should we be interested? Well, Tax evasion is 3) an illegal practice and that those caught evading taxes are generally subject to criminal charges and substantial penalties.

Many people in the right of the political spectrum are bothered by Wikileaks constant noise. Advice: They should stick to their libertarian instincts and praise an organization that actually exposes government and corporate wrongdoing. A mature democracy depends on having an educated and informed electorate. There should be consensus that the actions of government and the state, as well as the competing political interests to exercise political power, should be underpinned by critical scrutiny and informed debate facilitated by the media.
  
Wikileaks is part of a new phenomenon that has to do with the disappearance of the traditional press as we know it. ² However, that should not and will not contradict the basic assumption that there is no true democracy without a free press.  

Since 2007, Wikileaks has made public an impressive series of classified documents: the so-called Afghan War Diary, a controversial video of an American Helicopter strike on Reuters journalists, the Iraq War Logs and Cablegate last November. The sheer amount of information and the manner in which it has been obtained has exceeded expectations.

Take note: something must be going on when Muammar Gaddafi, a dictator of Lybia for 40 years, calls Wikileaks "an evil organization." ³

What I'm talking about can be put in terms of a balance between liberal economy and morals. If democracy is, in the words of Lincoln in his Gettysburg address, "of the people, by the people, for the people," one can make a reasonable argument that it is in the best interest of the people to know when that covenant is broken, or put into risk.

Transparency and accountability are essential for the functioning of democracy. 


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¹ The surprise here is that this case already has a history:  It started as a complaint filed in the Northern District of California by Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd. (BJB) and its Cayman Islands unit against Wikileaks, its domain Wikileaks.org, and Dynadot, LLC, a domain registrar, claiming that the defendants unlawfully published confidential and counterfeit documents belonging to the bank. The plaintiffs sought the return of the documents in question, allegedly stolen from BJB by a disgruntled former employee, as well as the removal of those documents from defendants' Web sites. Wikileaks contended that the documents revealed illegal financial transactions and tax evasion by the bank, while BJB asserted that they contained confidential information belonging to the bank and its customers and that some of the documents had been altered. What happens next is that federal district court judge Jeffrey White granted the plaintiff relief in the form of a permanent injunction requiring Dynadot, based in San Mateo, California, to lock and disable the Wikileaks.org domain name on February 15, 2008. But the court's order met criticism on several grounds, including constitutional: The permanent injunction was widely condemned as excessive, particularly because the directive to Dynadot blocked an entire Web site on the basis of a dispute relating to a small portion of its content. Critics likened the order to the Pentagon Papers case in which the Supreme Court famously refused a request from the Justice Department to enjoin publication of articles based on documents illegally leaked from the Defense Department. ²Whatever the causes for such crisis, this is how Steve Coll for New America Foundation puts it:

The rate of destruction of professional journalism -and its output of independent reporting on American public institutions and on international affairs- is far outpacing the ability of new institutions to reproduce what is being lost, particularly in its civic functions. Secular and cyclical economic forces have suddenly combined to dismantle the business models that have for decades supported independent, public-minded reporting for large general audiences about local and state government, Congress, the executive branch, and international affairs. According to one organization that tracks newspaper job losses, the industry shed an estimated 15,970 jobs in 2008 and 8,484 through April of this year. The rapid and large-scale loss of independent reporting by many of these professionals, without any prospect of its replacement by new institutions in the foreseeable future, is an urgent matter of public interest.

³ By now we should be used to the "evil rhetoric."

MWF 8am class: Post your comment here

I will close this post for comments on Saturday 15, @ 11pm.

Hyperbole, vitriol and bullets

In light of last night's shooting in Arizona, the issue on the table is freedom of expression. Much freedom is allowed when that it's used to distort and incite the masses. Giffords' shooting caused 6 lives, including Judge John Roll (on a Marchall protection plan) and a 9 year old girl.

We should learn that words and images have consequences:

I'm not saying Palin's "targets" caused Jared Lee to act. I simply point to a correlation between political rhetoric and people's beliefs. The vitriol, the constant use of guns together with the invocation of the Ur-Constitution¹, which makes up for something as bizarre as this send-a-warrior-to-congress poster:

Is politics essentially a realm of hyperbole, distortions and vitriol? Predictably, gun rights' inflated language gets mixed with a bombastic and bellicose anti-government rhetoric:

In On Liberty (1859), John Stuart Mill argues that "...there ought to exist the fullest liberty of professing and discussing, as a matter of ethical conviction, any doctrine, however immoral it may be considered." Mill argues that the fullest liberty of expression is required to push arguments to their logical limits, rather than the limits of social embarrassment. However, Mill also introduced what is known as the harm principle, in placing the following limitation on free expression: "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."

There is a "liberal" interpretation of Mill. We should be free to express ourselves. The state should not interfere (in Liberalism the State is the bogeyman). Ideally, we should be educated enough to read between the lines and make up our minds. No one should do it for us. But as we know from the Lee Laughners and McVeighs of this world, there are intolerant and violent individuals who will not be educated and will buy the rhetoric. What then?

What do you do with false facts, flawed argumentation, divisive language and dehumanizing metaphors? Are not these ingredients the perfect broth for "hate speech"?

In countries like Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands hate speech is prohibited. In our country, in light of the First Amendment, our position remains ambivalent. 

How do you reconcile freedom of expression in a world with terrorism and political polarization? Is there a middle way?
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Update: To illustrate my point. Just after the shooting, members of the ultra-conservative Westboro Baptist Church, known for their anti-homosexual propaganda proposed to picket funerals of Arizona victims. They published the following in their Website (appropriately dubbed www.godhatesfags.com):

God sent the shooter!

Your federal judge is dead and your (fag-promoting, baby-killing, proud-sinner) Congresswoman fights for her life. God is avenging Himself on this rebellious house! WBC prays for your destruction--more shooters, more dead carcasses piling up, young, old, leader and commoner--all. Your doom is upon you!

If these words not incendiary, what is?
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¹By Ur-Constitution, I mean the "original constitution w/o amendments." A constitution that many people in our country keep invoking.