Deck 13: Global Economic Justice

Question 1

Garrett Hardin, in his article "Lifeboat Ethics," argues that

A) rich nations have an obligation to help poor ones whose population can be controlled.
B) poor nations have a right to the help of rich nations.
C) rich nations ought to help only other rich nations
D) rich nations have an obligation not to help poor nations whose population cannot be controlled.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

One of the main factors that Hardin links to world hunger and poverty is

A) reproduction rates
B) exploitation of other people.
C) people having too many rights.
D) none of the above

Answer 2

A

Question 3

According to Hardin, the fundamental error of "sharing ethics" is that

A) it is anti-Christian.
B) it would require a stronger system of taxation for the affluent.
C) it would lead to a "tragedy of the commons."
D) all of the above

Answer 3

C

Question 4

According to Hardin, the "ratchet effect" refers to the fact that

A) overpopulation does not affect the number of people who are poor.
B) overpopulation leads to creation of food banks that help curb poverty rates.
C) world hunger and poverty leads to recognition of rights not to be hungry.
D) the use of a world food bank to feed the hungry leads to an escalating series of emergency situations.

Question 5

On the proposal that we need to establish world food banks to help those who are in need, Hardin would say that

A) if the proposal were to be realized, the operation must be conducted consistently.
B) only the richer countries have some moral obligation to make deposits in the world food banks.
C) it would be subject to the tragedy of the commons.
D) we need to go with the idea because we ought not to punish poor people who are caught in an emergency

Question 6

Hardin's approach to the moral issues of hunger and poverty is essentially

A) a consequentialist approach.
B) a virtue ethics approach.
C) an ethics of prime facie duty approach.
D) a Christian/Marxist approach.

Question 7

According to Singer, thinking ethically is all about

A) thinking about what is in one's own self-interest.
B) putting yourself in the place of others.
C) considering how to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others.
D) all of the above

Question 8

Singer presents his three-premise argument in addition to appealing to the case of the drowning child because

A) he believes that abstract arguments are more likely to convince one to act.
B) he argues that our emotional reactions have no bearing on which moral claims are true.
C) he believes arguments are a more efficient way to appeal to one's emotions.
D) he wants to appeal to the reader's reason and not just pull at the reader's heartstrings.

Question 9

How does Singer respond to the objection that people have a right to spend the money they earn on themselves?

A) He says that having a right to do something doesn't settle the question on what you should do.
B) He says that knowing you should do something entails that you have a right to do it.
C) He denies that people have a right to spend the money they earn on themselves.
D) He argues that people also have a right to spend the money they earn on others.

Question 10

According to Singer, international corporations that deal with corrupt dictators are akin to

A) murderers of those who witness crimes.
B) prostitutes who knowingly spread disease.
C) people who knowingly buy stolen goods.
D) all of the above

Question 11

Singer argues that developing nations are harming poor nations by

A) causing global warming.
B) handing out too much foreign aid, which increases need.
C) ignoring important aspects of their culture.
D) ignoring important aspects of their culture.

Question 12

The second premise in Singer's main argument is: "If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything nearly as important, it is wrong not to do so." Which phrase in this premise is deliberately left vague?

A) "something bad"
B) "it is wrong"
C) "nearly as important"
D) "in your power"

Question 13

What is the main reason why Arthur doesn't think that the poor have a right to aid from the affluent?

A) Persons can never have a right to aid from anyone.
B) The right to aid is a negative right.
C) The consequences of helping the poor would be worse than the consequences of not helping them
D) This kind of right would require a contract or agreement, and the affluent haven't entered into a contract or agreement with the poor.

Question 14

With respect to the issue of world hunger and poverty, Arthur points out that Singer ignores

A) the principles of equality and harm.
B) the principles of the right and the good.
C) the principles of rights and desert.
D) the principles of ability to help and desires.

Question 15

The principle Arthur calls "the greater moral evil rule" says that

A) people are entitled to keep their earnings only if there is no way for them to prevent a greater evil by giving them away.
B) being rich is a great moral evil, and as such we should all strive to live on a moderate income.
C) two moral evils do not make a moral good.
D) morality itself is a great evil.

Question 16

According to Arthur, if someone is likely to die unless you give him or her one of your healthy kidneys, you are not obligated to give up a kidney because

A) the sick person does not deserve this kind of generosity.
B) you have a right to your body.
C) both A and B
D) neither A nor B

Question 17

Which of the following is an example of a "right of noninterference" according to Arthur?

A) the right to privacy
B) the right to life
C) the right to exercise religious freedom
D) all of the above

Question 18

Which of the following is a value that Arthur believes is more fundamental than rights and desert?

A) justice
B) fairness
C) respect for other persons
D) all of the above

Question 19

The annual death-toll from poverty related causes is, according to Pogge,

A) around one quarter of all human deaths.
B) around one third of all human deaths.
C) around one half of all human deaths.
D) none of the above.

Question 20

Pogge argues that even though we cannot be held responsible for the wrongful acts that others did long ago, we can be held responsible for

A) claiming the benefits gained by those wrongs.
B) failing to address those wrongs as if they were our own.
C) whether or not we respect other persons
D) all of the above

Question 21

On Pogge's view, affluent citizens are harming the poor by

A) imposing on them the lasting effects of historical crimes.
B) keeping them below welfare in the state-of-nature.
C) both A and B
D) None of the above

Question 22

Since we who live in wealthy countries have directly caused harm, Pogge argues that we have very stringent

A) libertarian duties towards the global poor
B) positive duties towards the global poor
C) negative duties towards the global poor
D) egalitarian duties towards the global poor

Question 23

One kind of externality imposed on the world's poor by the economic activity of wealthy nation is

A) unequal social order.
B) authoritarian regimes.
C) Crime.
D) pollution.

Question 24

Pogge argues that sometimes a harm can follow from the imposition of what, rather than the other way around?

A) injustice
B) pain
C) vice
D) all of the above

Question 25

Ashford's article is meant to address a particular paralysis in the face of

A) the sheer scope of global poverty
B) having to choose between addressing immediate harm and addressing structural injustice.
C) reconciling conflict moral theories
D) having to give up so much of our own wealth in light of Singer's arguments

Question 26

In support of her thesis that global social institutions violate the rights of the world's poor, Ashford argues that

A) illicit cash flow to tax havens from rich countries exceeds aid to the world's poor.
B) the implementation of neoliberal economic policies have had at mixed and at worse adverse impacts of the economic and social rights of the world's poor.
C) that wealthy nations press their political and economic advantages to secure unfair trade agreements with poor countries.
D) all of the above

Question 27

Ashford defines a structural human rights violation as

A) violations of human rights that pertain to the structure of a person's practical, social, and political
Agency.
B) ongoing patterns of behavior by a large number of agents which predictably result in many others coming to be deprived of the object of a fundamental human right: the means of subsistence
C) the violation of fundamental human rights brought about the political structures of a particular government.
D) all of the above

Question 28

Ashford argues that worries about causing dependency on aid agencies among those in extreme poverty does not mean that we should

A) abandon the world's poor to their unjust predicament
B) legally abolish aid agencies.
C) adopt a social contract approach to the problem of global economic justice
D) accept the view that we have no negative duties to the poor.

Question 29

Ashford thinks that the right test of whether or not legal and economic structures are minimally just is to see whether or not

A) they help develop human capabilities.
B) they minimize the amount of suffering in the world.
C) they recognize, enforce, and implement duties not to violate human rights.
D) they are universalizable.

Question 30

By recognizing that we have backup duties to donate to aid agencies, Ashford argues that we can

A) acknowledge the force of the criticism that effective altruism is at best a band-aid approach while diffusing this same criticism.
B) acknowledge that effective altruism fails to be the right response to global poverty.
C) feel relieved about our duties to the global poor, since backup duties are not morally urgent
D) None of the above.

Question 31

The question of scope, as it pertains to the duty of charity, is "To whom is the duty owed?"

Question 32

The question of content, as it pertains to the duty of charity, is "How strong is one's obligation to help those in need when doing so conflicts with other reasons for action?"

Question 33

According to a purely consequentialist theory, thinking about world hunger and poverty requires that we consider various competing prima facie duties

Question 34

An international food bank, according to Hardin, is really just a one-way transfer device for moving wealth from rich countries to poor

Question 35

Hardin argues that Christian-Marxist idealism is unacceptable because it advocates selfishness

Question 36

Hardin's primary complaint about "the sharing ethics" is that it is unfair.

Question 37

The "population escalator" that Hardin discusses involves a process that will not end until a catastrophe occurs.

Question 38

Singer argues that the desires of others count more than our own.

Question 39

In addition to sometimes not helping the poor, Singer argues that there are many ways in which the rich are harming (i.e., causing harm to) the poor.

Question 40

Singer claims that developing nations with rich deposits are always better off than otherwise comparable nations without those resources.

Question 41

Singer agrees that we should not be giving money or food directly to the poor except in emergencies like drought, earthquake, or flood.

Question 42

Arthur denies that our moral code gives any weight to the greater moral evil principle.

Question 43

Entitlements, according to Arthur, are forward-looking; they depend on future consequences.

Question 44

It is rational to support a moral code, says Arthur, only if that code is able to gain the support of almost everyone.

Question 45

According to Arthur, a moral code must take into account the fact that we are often mistaken about the consequences of what we do.

Question 46

Pogge argues that we do not have a duty to change the global economic order in light of world poverty

Question 47

According to Pogge, rich countries pay nothing for the externalities they impose on poor countries by polluting and depleting resources.

Question 48

On Ashford's view, our duty to donate to aid agencies arises from the failure of a more basic duty to change the structures that underlie poverty.

Question 49

Ashford argues that extreme poverty is a structural human rights violation.

Question 50

On Ashford's view, backup duties are generally not morally urgent.

Question 51

According to the World Bank, 1.4 billion of the world's population lives in extreme _________, which it defines as not having enough income to meet one's most basic needs.

Question 52

One of the central questions of chapter 13 is whether economically advantaged people are morally required to participate in a scheme of _________ so that some of their wealth goes to people who are severely economically disadvantaged.

Question 53

The duty of _________ (or charity) is, roughly, the duty to help those in dire need.

Question 54

Hardin says, "The fundamental error of the _________ ethics is that it leads to the tragedy of the commons."

Question 55

According to Hardin, in thinking about hunger and poverty as moral issues, it is useful to think of them in terms of the metaphor of the _________.

Question 56

What Hardin calls "the _________ effect" is the effect that world food banks would have on poor nations, whose populations would increase along with their need for assistance

Question 57

A social system is stable, according to Hardin, only if it is insensitive to _________.

Question 58

Singer quotes Paul Gomberg as saying that philanthropy promotes "political _________" because it deflects attention away from the institutional causes of poverty.

Question 59

Singer states, "The fact that we tend to favor our families, communities, and countries may explain our failure to save the lives of the poor beyond those boundaries, but it does not justify that failure from a(n) _________ perspective."

Question 60

Singer gives a rough characterization of the view known as "_________" by describing it as the philosophy that says "You leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone, and we'll get along just fine."

Question 61

Singer describes moral _________ as the view we should accept that everyone is entitled to follow his or her own (moral) beliefs.

Question 62

According to Arthur, equality demands equal consideration of _________ as well as respect for certain rights.

Question 63

Arthur says that negative, unlike positive, rights are _________; which ones you have depends on what you are.

Question 64

Positive rights, says Arthur, are rights of _________. For example, if I agree to share in a business venture with you and then back out of the deal, I've violated your right to my cooperation

Question 65

Ignoring past guilt, according to Arthur, shows a lack of regard for _________.

Question 66

Pogge argues that the affluent lifestyles of those living in rich countries _________ harms the global poor.

Question 67

On Pogge's view, many citizens of wealthy countries bear the _________ for the current global institutional arrangements.

Question 68

The fact that poor nations are typically governed poorly is evidence against, not for, _________ nationalism.

Question 69

Ashford thinks that some positive duties, like the duty to provide means of subsistence, are also duties of justice, owed to each person in virtue of his or her _________.

Question 70

Even though Ashford thinks that it is extremely morally preferable to address the structural issues that give rise to poverty, this does not mean we should forgo giving to aid agencies, as they are typically the only actors who can prevent existing threat's to peoples basic _________.