Philosophy Articles - Assignment Example

? Philosophy Articles In her article business and environment, Jane Shaw says that business and business practices concerning environmental issues have often been misrepresented or distorted explain some of the examples that she uses to make her case. In the article; Business and the environment, Jane Shaw depicts some issues that people have misinterpreted as environmental issues in connection with business. One of the issues that she points out is the establishment of the air pollution act 1970. In this article Jane states that the air pollution has started going down long before the establishment of the Act in the year 1970. People have for many times viewed the establishment of acts that govern critical aspects as the air pollution as the way forward, this, she has indicatively shown not be true by pointing out different perspectives. In the article indication of the words of Robert Crandall of the brooking institution; said, the pollution reduction in the 1960’s was more effective before there was serious federal policy. This then shows that the reduction of pollution has not been as from the effects of the government issues (Shaw, 2005). Another issue that Jane has brought in light is the misconceptions of the love canal. There was a major contamination problem that ensued from the chemical leakage to the people’s yard in the year 1978. The blame was made to the chemical industry that was responsible for the chemical content that was buried under these developments. The misconception here that Jane sheds light on is that the blame from this was supposed to be on the school that ignored the constant warnings from the Hooker chemical company. Another instance in the article is the aspect of the ‘Tennessee Tree massacre’, in this, Jane illustrate the fact that people blamed the clear cut of tree as an environmental hazard. The misconception of this aspect is that people tend to not have the motive that this activity is purposed for. By clearing parts of the trees, there is the intention to plant more trees that tend to grow at a faster rate and will then cover the lost parts of the trees. The process of clear cuts has been used by the Silviculture by both private and government based industry. In both, the intention has always been to replace the trees with fast growing pines. With Jane Shaw having made these points in her article, the arguments can be said to be true since in her indication of the fact that the establishment of Air pollution Act do not have a significant impact in the pollution reduction. This is true since there is more use of gas energy compared to coal which its usage became more and usage of such energy as coal was reduced. The other points including the Tennessee tree massacre scenario is true since the danger was imminent and the company had issued warnings of the damage that could have been felt and could have been avoided. 2. Many people believe that there are some things that only government can provide. One example is public schools but Sheldon Richman, in his article ‘can the free market provide public education?’ argues that in fact, better and less expense education could be supplied by private enterprise. Explain his argument. Do you agree? Why? Sheldon Richman tends to demonstrate that the private enterprise is capable of providing better and less expensive education. Richman states that there are the private and nonprofit organizations that provide all manner of education. These ranges from the comprehensive schools that has traditional academy subjects to the specialized schools that offer subjects such as martial arts, fine arts and many other subjects. Richman argues that the public education is taxed and the government uses the unfairness of having resources compared to the free market to its advantage to the ‘unfair competition’. The free market, according to Richman, can provide better education compared to the public education if it were not for the ‘unfair competition from the government’. In this article, Richman illustrates that the government provides taxpayers with what they term as free education thus undermining the means by which people can receive education from the private sector which can be in real sense cheaper since no one gets to pay anything compared t the public education where the payment is in the taxes paid Richman points out that the private education is already in progress but the government practices are hindering the growth. Richman shows that education is a combination of land, labor, and capital goods directed at a particular objective. The objectives here are that the students are supposed to follow the instructions demanded by the consumers. This can be then provided by the private market at a value lesser than the public education could (Richman, 2000). In a free market the parents get to determine what services are offered and they get to determine the type of education. This shows that the free market is better since the parents have the best intentions at heart for their children compared to the government. The argument that Richman makes in this article can be said to be true since education is a value that all requires and any parent would like to get the best and highest level of education for their children. If this is so then the free market would then be able to offer the preferable education to their children. The misinformation on the consumer values on public education is the setback to this type of education since it fails to address the benefits that the free market education can offer at cheaper costs. 3. In the article’ the menace and immorality of the welfare state’ it is argued that there are several reasons for being concerned in the growth of the government powers in the form of regulation and redistribution of wealth. What are those reasons and why are they seen as ‘menaces’ by the author do you agree and why? The first reason postulated in this article is that the government considers its citizens to be ignorant and too irresponsible towards planning their own lives. The government tends to lack faith in the citizens taking care of things such as the education health and retirement. There is use of force by the state to achieve their paternistic ends. The state takes advantage by using its coercive powers to take the income and wealth from a certain people and give it to other people. The enforcement of the paternistic powers is enforced by some of the laws like the legitimized authority by the police to use lethal force against those people who resists its powers. Another reason is that the author tends to agree with the Noble laureate James Buchaman who says that the actual intervention of government and the redistribution activities have very little to do with the public good like many people have been led to think. The author also tends to share likeliness with Fredrick A. Hayek in the idea that social justice and political enforced fairness are all mirages. The mentality shared in this idealism is that the government does not reward out of merits but service that an individual succeeded in offering others. Another reason is that the author believes that the debt of the government increases on a daily basis. This is due to the lack of a ‘fiscal constitution’ that imposes a balanced budget or limit of the expenditure of the government. This has caused the government growth to grow to trillions of dollars. The author refers to the government as a menace since he feels like the government through its activities can cause harm o many people. This is evident since the author portrays the government as negligent of some of its activities like way wealth is taken from particular people and distributed to other at different ratio. This activity is considerably a menace since it will in the long run affect the economy of certain people (Ebeling, 2013). This article portrays the government as a tool for the destruction of lives of the citizen. In this light, I would tend to disagree as the positive sides that have been experienced from the redistribution to the current times have proven to be positive on the lives of people that depend on welfare. The size of the population is big, in this light time is a consideration as one cannot deduce if the program works until it is given some times. Reference Jane Shaw, Business and the environment (2005) web article Richard Ebeling, The state and immorality of welfare, (2013). Web article. Sheldon Richman, can the free market provide public education, (2000) web article Read More