PHIL 384- Mid term 1

What view on property is Locke opposing in the Treatise?

Absolute sovereignty/authoritarianism and Robert Filmer's theory on divine right of kings. Locke believes people are entitled to the fruits of their own labor through natural rights to liberty and property.

Why is private property, according to Locke, in line with God's purpose for humanity?

What are Locke’s implicit targets in “Of Property”? What does he aim to establish?

God provides the world with common ownership, and the purpose of this provision is that we make the best possible use of it.

• private property ownership by bourgeoisie protected from arbitrary power of the king

• justification of inequality of goods paving the way for the industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism

• Justification of the American colonies and the confiscation of Native American lands

Why does Locke's justification of appropriating land from the commons as private property depend on views about the human body?

What we make with our labor is ours because our body is our own. Therefore, land becomes someone's property as long as they put in the work to justify ownership.

What two conditions does Locke impose on the appropriation of land from the commons?

No-waste: We can use property until we let it spoil, go to waste, or neglect it. Enough-and-as-good: Enough land must be left in good condition for others to use.

Why does Locke believe inequality enters the world with the introduction of money? What is the role of the no-waste condition?

The no waste condition no longer can be enforced because money does not spoil. People begin purchasing more than they can use, which would otherwise lead to waste. Money allows people to acquire more property without violating the no-waste condition, while more industrious people justifiably acquire more.

How does appropriation of land in the commons proceed in Locke's England?

After property rights are assigned based on productive activity and the enough-and-as-good condition, the remaining commons are given to a political authority and are no longer freely shared.

Why does Locke think his view of property justifies appropriation of land by settlers in the Americas?

Settlers brought resources necessary to cultivate and make use of the land to its fullest potential. Critics argue this violated enough-and-as-good because Native peoples were left with less land relative to their technology. Locke would argue that Native technology was inferior and wasteful and that settlers left enough-and-as-good if they shared production technology and compensated Native peoples for losses.

Contrast Locke's view on slavery in the Treatises with the Constitution of the Carolinas.

explain inconsistencies

Locke wrote that slavery was vile and miserable and that natural liberty means being free from superior power. However, in the Carolina constitutions, he wrote that every freeman of Carolina would have absolute power and authority over his slaves.

• could be a scribe in a secretarial role and did not author the constitution

• could have changed political views with in the time of writing

• could be referring to “slaves” as prisoners of war

What type of "slavery" did Locke approve of, and how does this apply to the Carolinas?

Prisoners of war in a just war could forfeit their lives, liberties, and estates when captured. This involved absolute dominion, unlike the civil dominion described in the Carolina constitutions.

• Slavery of prisoners of war only applies to combatants and is non-hereditary

How does Locke use Genesis to justify the enclosure of Indian land?

Locke references Genesis, saying that once land is settled, Abraham moves to a place where much of the land remains common and its inhabitants do not value it or claim more than they can use.

What can be said for and against the claim that the Revolutionary War was fought to preserve slavery?

Britain anti-slave and US pro:

• Somerset vs Stewart

• Dunmore Proclamation

• fugitive slave clause (Return of escaped enslaved people

• calling forth clause (Congress can mobilize militias to put down slave revolts)

• international slave trade permitted until 1807

Britain pro-slave and US anti:

• Britain abolished slavery in Caribbean colonies 60 years after revolutionary war, mostly die to external pressure

• abolished slave trade in 1806

• omission of slavery in the constitution

• northwest ordinance (no slavery in new territories west of the Ohio River

What is the relevance of Somerset v. Stewart (1772) and the Dunmore Proclamation?

Somerset v. Stewart ruled that slavery was unlawful in England. A master could not forcibly take a slave to be sold abroad, so the enslaved person had to be discharged.

How might one argue against the claim that the British were intent on abolishing slavery in the American colonies?

Britain only abolished slavery in its Caribbean colonies under external pressure and about 60 years after the Revolutionary War.

What can be said for and against the claim that the Founding Fathers intended to preserve slavery in the Union?

For preservation: Fugitive Slave Act, international slave trade protected until 1807, and the Calling Forth Clause. Against preservation: Slavery was omitted from the Constitution because it was considered wrong to admit that there could be property in people, and the Northwest Ordinance was unanimously passed.

What is the relevance of the Fugitive Slave Clause and the Calling Forth Clause?

The Fugitive Slave Clause requires escaped slaves to be returned. The Calling Forth Clause allows Congress to put down slave revolts.

evidence of slavery in constitution

How was the international slave trade addressed in the Constitution?

The Constitution paved the way for abolition of the international slave trade in 1807.

permitted until 1807

What is the relevance of the Northwest Ordinance?

Slavery was not permitted in new territories.

What does Hume consider the function of the institution of justice

Public utility (what is useful or beneficial for society as a whole) is the sole origin of justice. Justice secures mutual advantage, including through rules of property.

The only reason justice exists is because it benefits society, and the only reason we consider justice morally good is because we see the benefits it produces —> good things come from property rules

What are Hume's subjective circumstances of justice?

How does Hume argue that we might mistakenly think that the equal division of goods would be desirable? What three arguments does he offer against the equal division of goods?

Extremely nice circumstances or extremely nasty circumstances. Does not hold in societies with relative scarcity

seems appealing because money will do more when give to a poor person than a rich one, but says it is impracticable (some people are more capable at making money and would simply make more over time), pernicious (would lead to widespread poverty because of lack of incentives), and would require constant correction by the state

What are Hume’s objective circumstances of justice? Under what two social conditions do they not hold?

What does Hume consider to be useful rules of property. Why are these rules useful?

Extreme riches or extreme scarcity. Does not hold in societies with relative scarcity

1. people have the right to retain the fruits of their labor

2. people have the right to bequeath their belongings to their descendants

3. people have the right to buy and sell property

4. agreements must be kept

Does greater abundance incline people to give more to charity? Explain the U-shaped relationship between income and charitable giving.

No. Willingness to share is not a function of income, based on the assumption of non-satiation.

What are the two interpretations of what is permissible under extreme necessity?

Either each person must fend for themselves within the constraints of morality, or the state takes over, nullifies property rules, and tries to ensure everyone is provided for.

What is Hume’s view of political communities that practice the communal ownership of goods?

only sees their failure

How does the CDC justify its authority to impose an eviction moratorium?

How did SCOTUS respond in their 26 August 2021 ruling?

The 1944 Public Health Service Act established that quarantines could be enforced for infected individuals. The CDC used this precedent to argue that people unable to pay rent should not be forced to crowd together with others.

CDC does not have the authority to enforce, relies on a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination

How does the WSJ article counter the eviction moratorium?

Landlords are forced to bear the financial costs of the eviction moratorium.

Why is there so little uptake among tenants and landlords of federal rent-relief money?

How is the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment relevant to the COVID Eviction Moratorium

Renters: lack of knowledge, complex paperwork, informal housing arrangements without proper leases, and eviction protection.

Landlords: disagreement with conditions, limited coverage, requirements to waive back rent, and complicated future eviction.

states that “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation” and there is a violation of a property owners right to exclude others from property

What are two unintended negative consequences of the eviction moratorium that may hurt lower-SES groups?

How is the COVID eviction moratorium similar to Hume’s example of opening the granaries in times of famine

Independent landlords may stop renting and move to Airbnb or sell properties to investment companies, exacerbating the housing shortage for lower-SES people.

Property is alienated in the public interest

Provide one argument in Lockean style and one argument in Humean style against estate taxes.

Provide one argument in Lockean style and one argument in Humean style in favor of estate taxes.

Why are these Lockean arguments? Why are they Humean arguments?

Locke against estate taxes: a right to bequeath comes with natural property rights

Hume against estate taxes: threatens family farms and ancestral homes

Locked for estate taxes: heirs are not claiming the fruits of their labor, so its okay if they get taxed again

Hume for estate taxes: These taxes will cause better societal outcomes than other taxes

What does Smith aim to show with his pin-making workstead example?

What three reasons does Smith give for why division of labor increases production?

Division of labor and how it increases productivity.

Greater skill due to specialization, repetition of single tasks saves transition time, and automation.

What two reasons does Smith give for why division of labor leads to greater automation?

Specialized workers find easier and more efficient methods due to specialized knowledge, and making machines becomes a specialized activity.

How does division of labor affect lower-SES groups according to Smith?

It creates a level of wealth that massively benefits even the lowest socioeconomic groups, making them better off than the highest-ranking people in less-developed nations.

What human propensity makes division of labor possible according to Smith?

Bartering.

What is the role of benevolence and self-interest in providing goods?

It is more reliable to obtain goods and services from a self-interested person with a propensity to barter than from someone acting out of benevolence.

“It is not from benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from the regard to their own interest”

What is the link between population density and industrial innovation according to Smith?

A larger market permits greater division of labor. Only large markets create enough demand for specialized services.

What geographical explanation does Smith provide for different levels of development?

Navigable coasts develop faster than interior lands because waterways facilitate transportation, increasing market size and division of labor.

The Mediterranean developed early because of navigation possibilities before the compass. Rivers with canals facilitate transport, while non-navigable rivers or rivers not under one authority do not.

Africa is not as developed because of its lack of navigable waterways and sheer amount of land

Provide four arguments the US might invoke to argue that they are facing unfair competition in China. Explain.

1. less labor cost and less regulation (just easier ad cheaper to make stuff in china than US)

2. currency manipulation (can lower the value of Chinese currency to make goods cheaper for foreigners)

3. subsidies for state owned companies (more financial support allows for more business)

4. intellectual property theft (doing business in China requires a technology transfer)

Give four reasons why the US might want to impose tariffs on imports. Explain.

1. reduce the global trade deficit

2. bring back manufacturing (threatens growth and inovation)

3. protection of key industries, like steel, energy, medical supplies (reduces dependency on other countries and gives us national security)\

4. generate gov revenue

5. leverage for trade negotiations

6. leverage for politcal disputes

Give three reasons why tariffs may negatively affect the US economy and its political position in the world. Explain.

1. increases consumer prices (higher consumer prices for domestic goods too because less competition leads to price hike)

2. increase price for intermediate goods

3. retaliation and isolation

4. rent seeking (companies try to avoid tariffs in exchange for political support, other countries seek exemptions in exchange for bribes and gifts)

Tariffs on intermediate goods may hurt manufacturing in the US. How so?

cost more to make

higher consumer prices

job loss

What arguments did SCOTUS offer to strike down the current administration’s justification of tariffs.

What alternative legal strategy did they resort to

constiutional power to tax is with congress, not the executive branch

need to have explicit authorization from congress if country is in state of emergency

places temporary tariffs instead

What are three reasons for imposing tariffs?

Correct trade imbalances, protect manufacturing jobs, protect against unfair competition, and protect national security.

Why might tariffs benefit the local economy?

Local producers can enter the market when imported goods become more expensive than local goods.

What are three ways tariffs may hurt the local economy?

Higher prices for consumer goods, higher prices for imported intermediary goods, and higher production costs.

How might tariffs positively and negatively affect national security?

Positive: less reliance on foreign markets for sensitive goods. Negative: retaliation by foreign governments, job losses, and loss of trust between allies.

What did Smith overlook when he failed to predict the pauperization of the workers that capitalism would bring about?

that conditions for workers would continue to get worse while the rich get richer

Why did Smith think the invisible hand would lead to roughly equal distribution?

Increased productivity would trickle down to everyone, producing a roughly equal distribution of money.

increased productivity —> the rich have equal consumption needs as the poor —> rich will share with poor —> roughly equal distribution

What are the aspects of Marx's claim that workers are alienated from their labor?

alienated from product ad production process

• mystification: we do not understand the product we create and the market forces under which we labor

• domination: we no longer control the product we created nor the market forces

alienated from the productive activity

• humans are creative, but under capitalism, work is repetitive and grueling

• there is no sense of collaborative achievement

What does Marx's Labor Theory of Value say about capitalist profit and exploitation?

• Exchange value is based on socially necessary labor time.

• The capitalist pays a wage below the exchange value of an hour of labor and appropriates the surplus value.

• Workers must work long hours to survive.

Why does capitalism rely on an "Industrial Reserve Army of the Unemployed"?

There are more people willing to work than there are available jobs.

the worker is in a poor bargaining position and is forced to work for lower wages

How does Marx's Historical Materialism view the relationship between technology, economics, politics, and law?

Technology determines the economic structure (the industrial revolution giving rise to capitalism), and the economic structure determines the political and legal structures (minimal gov intervention w economic market)

Marx believed that the Communist Revolution would come about as a necessary consequence of certain social forces within Capitalism. Explain.

growing working class and shrinking upper class

increased pauperization (everyone keeps getting poorer)

threat to economic bust conditions

increased class consensus (awareness among workers that they are being exploited)

What is reflexivity in the social sciences, and how might it explain Marx's failed prediction?

Predictions of doom can be self-falsifying. In response to the threat of collapse, the social welfare state and middle class rose.

What are two interpretations of Marx's "hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic" passage?

1. Automation could create abundance so production no longer requires strict division of labor that led to alienation

2. it could create enough free time for people to do what they want.

In the Critique of the Gotha Program, Marx writes, “From each according to ability, to each according to need!” Explain what he meant by the ‘from each…’ and the ‘to each…’ part

“according to ability” = contribution; give according to your ability

• because working conditions arent bad and as alienating, people will want to work for the collective good

“according to need” = distribution; recieve according to your needs

• work longer/harder = get more

• even if you contribute more, you dont necessarily get more if you dont need it

What role does Marx envision for the state in a Communist society?

Planned economy, state control of essential sectors such as banks, communications, transportation, and industries, state provision of public goods such as education, and taxation.

How is the Official Poverty Level calculated? How is relative poverty calculated, and which is greater?

Official Poverty Level: three times the cost of a 1963 minimal diet adjusted to today's prices.

Relative poverty: 50–60% of median household income. Relative poverty is higher than absolute poverty.

What happened to poverty rates over the last half-century for Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, the elderly, working-age people, and children?

Poverty rates dropped for Blacks and Hispanics and rose for Whites. Poverty rose for children and working-age adults and fell for the elderly.

Matthew Desmond argues that poverty is persistent due to exploitation. Discuss three areas in which Desmond identifies this exploitation. Discuss one objection from conservative sources

• federal benefits do not reach poor (states divert funds to other things)

• decline of unions

• high rents in low SES markets

• banking sector exploits poor

conservatives say poverty is due to poor life choices

Lay out and explain three concerns that one might have about high inequality.

less social mobility

poor face lower life expectancy, obesity, and poor educational outcomes

undermines democratic citizenship (upper and lower classes operate in different spheres)

How is the Gini coefficient calculated, and what are the axes of a Lorenz curve?

The gini coefficient is a measure of inequality and uses the area between the line of perfect equality and the Lorenz curve and the area under the Lorenz curve.

The Lorenz curve shows cumulative income earned by cumulative portions of households.

The x-axis is the percentage of households by income distribution, and the y-axis is cumulative percentage of income.

The line of perfect equality is a straight line; the gap between it and the Lorenz curve represents inequality.

What are factors explaining rising income inequality in the US over the last 40 years?

Skill-based technological change

immigration of low-skilled workers

decline of labor unions

increased CEO income

declining real value of the minimum wage.

Why is it somewhat deceptive to compare the US Gini coefficient with Luxembourg's?

Luxembourg is much smaller than the US. The larger the unit, the more inequality one might expect.

If two countries have the same GDP and pre-tax/transfer Gini coefficient, why might lower-SES groups be better off in one country?

One country may provide more social programs to lower-SES groups after taxes and transfers. These benefits are not reflected in the pre-tax/transfer Gini coefficient.

What does Mill's corn-dealers example show about freedom of speech?

Freedom of speech should be protected until speech becomes hazardous to others. Telling a mob outside a corn dealer's house that the dealer starves the poor may not be protected.

What two conditions make an expressive act into "fighting words"?

It inflicts injury or tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace.

Give examples of Supreme Court cases where offensive actions were protected or not protected by the First Amendment.

Protected: Brandenburg v. Ohio, Snyder v. Phelps (promotes ideologies, no threat aimed at a particular person)

Not protected: Morse v. Frederick because it occurred on school property and School has legitimate interest in banning material that promotes illegal drug use

Present one epistemic, one political, and one argument based on moral character that Mill offers in defense of freedom of expression

epistemic: the truth wins when pitting half-truths against each other

political: democracies require a free flow of information

moral: freedom of expression supports freedom of tatstes and pursuits.

What is Mill's Harm Principle, and how does it relate to paternalism?

People should be free to act however they wish until their actions cause harm to someone else. This limits paternalistic interference.

What may one permissibly do to stop people from harming themselves?

Remonstrate, reason, persuade, or entreat.

What two arguments does Mill offer to defend his position that government should respect the freedom to choose a way of living within the constraints of the Harm Principle?

1. societies would collapse and become stagnant without social change (you need freedom in your enviorment to experiment and show the way to a better future)

2. choice of a life plan a part of being human (we must live autonomously to be human)

What six types of interventions can government impose to protect public health. Rank these interventions from most to least intrusive.

1. banning

2. subsidize alternatives

3. tax

4. nudge

5. appeal to emotions

6. provide information

How might Mill respond to Nudges? What would he find attractive about them? What might he find problematic?

pro: way to reason with a person causing harm to themself

con: could be on overreach by the state

Give an example of a public-policy intervention to prevent self-harm that would and would not pass Mill's Harm Principle.

Does not pass: banning something. Passes: social advertising.

What is Mill's view of taxation of stimulants?

It is permissible because stimulants are "least necessary" goods.

What four features characterize a nudge?

1. It changes the choice architecture

2. does not restrict the range of choices

3. exploits behavioral mechanisms using seemingly irrelevant factors

4. makes decisions in the interest of the nudgee.

Why are "Save More Tomorrow" and cafeteria design examples of nudges?

Save More Tomorrow increases savings by asking people to save more in the future when they receive a raise. Cafeteria design encourages healthier eating by placing healthier food toward the front of the queue.