Free Markets and Coronavirus Vaccines Essay

This course considers the ethics of money and ecology (the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change) and their relationship via public banking and finance. Topics include: what should or should not have been done to mitigate the 2020 pandemic in view of moral theory; the nature of money and public banking; how money motivates and corrupts us; responsibility for climate change, collective and personal; whether we should work less or otherwise reduce economic growth; the circular economy; our ethical relationship to our environment

Six Page Paper

Instructions: Write six pages and no more than six pages (Times New Roman, 12pt type, double-spaced, one-inch margins, headers, footers) on one of the following essay topics.

As a general rule, approximately four pages should be careful and sympathetic exposition of the relevant positions or arguments. Approximately two pages should reflect your critical or reflective engagement with the relevant positions or arguments.

Exposition and critical engagement can be intermingled. But be sure that your crucial discussion comes to at least two pages. The expositional task and the critical task are both essential.

Use helpful examples and apt quotations. Carefully organize the flow of ideas. Above all, strive for clarity.

1.Explain the “switch” and “bridge” versions of the Trolley Problem as Thompson explains them. Explain and evaluate Thompson’s position and present your own argument for or against utilitarianism. Consider possible objections and respond to them.

2.Should there be a free market in coronavirus vaccines atop the current priority system? Present a utilitarian argument in favor it and a non-utilitarian argument against. Is there a non-utilitarian argument in favor of it? Defend your own position. Make your principled basis explicit. Be sure to consider and answer possible objections.

3. How can a government give its money currency in a population? Why from a moral point of view must a government accept its own money when it is presented in payment of fees, fines, or taxes legally owed to it? How might a utilitarian answer this question? How might a non-utilitarian answer it? Give reasons why you think one answer is better than the others.