Philosophy

QUESTIONS FOR CASE 1:

1. What are the key ethical issues involved in the case about TAXES, TAX EXPERTS AND TAX LAWS? Explain what the article is about.

2. Is the practice of employing tax experts from big accounting firms at the U.S. Treasury Department for short periods, after which they often go back to the firms where they worked, ethical? Why or why not?

3. The tax breaks that big corporations get through the work of tax experts who go on the merry-go-round described in the article—are they ethically justifiable? Why or why not? Refer to two examples from the article.

4. Do you think middle class and working class taxpayers are paying higher taxes due to the practices described in the article that provide enormous tax breaks to rich U.S. corporations? Why or why not?

QUESTIONS FOR CASE 2:

1. What is the main idea that Peter Singer is discussing in this essay?

2. What does he mean by “relative poverty,” “absolute poverty” and “absolute affluence”?

3. What is Singer’s “argument for an obligation to assist”?

4. Do you agree with him that we have a moral duty to help those living in absolute poverty? Why or why not?

5. Singer discusses several common objections to providing money and aid to assist the poor in developing countries. What are two of those objections? What are Singer’s arguments against those two objections? Do you agree or disagree with Singer’s arguments against them? Why?

6. What role should multinational corporations play in alleviating poverty in the countries where they do business? Should they simply continue to do their day-to-day business there? Or should they do more than that? If so, what should they do? Explain.

THANK YOU FOR BEING A GREAT CLASS! HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER!