Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades

This article is about the need for Food Stamps, it says that the need for food stamps have growing at record highs. A program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. This article recognize the millions of jobs lost and major industries , Americans array of government aid- including unemployment insurance, food stamps and cash welfare- is being tested as never before. It is the worst economic crisis in decades it has grown so rapidly in places that in some places as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use food stamps for staples like milk, bread, and other products to try to survive. It also says that many Americans income in near or below the federal poverty line, longtime recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare. It doesn’t matter the size of the counties it says that is calculated half of the size of each county survive with food stamps. This article explains the record growing of food stamps in all the counties, the respond of the program has been tremendous. This is the most urgent time in our lifetime; with the exception of the Depression it’s time to acknowledge there are hungry people.

Personally I think that this crisis is happened now, because the bad management that we had for the last few years in America. Now all we can do is try to survive this crisis.  The big unemployment has caused many Americans to ask the Government for help. The Government is helping the American people with food stamps; this program is helping more Americans than ever. The depression is a very hard time for anybody; I think that the Government is doing a good job on helping the American people in this time of crisis. Food stamps don’t get any American richer, but makes us all believe that better times would come.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html?bl 

 

Closing of ethics center raises concerns

http://www.newstribune.com/articles/2009/08/31/news_state/123state32ethics09.txt

“ST. LOUIS (AP) — Washington University has announced it will close its ethics center just as two people connected to the university have had high-profile ethical.” This is the main point to this article because this university has decided to close down their ethical center because of budget matters. Before the main professor who was helping to give out ethics guidance to the university student was accused of putting false information on the website and directly to the students. He gave out false information to a doctor which led to them using the wrong drugs.

This is appalling and everyone should be punished that was linked to this centre because they are going against what they are actually there to do which is random. If you were an ethics worker then surly they would understand and have looked into greater details and know that they can not give false information out because this will give a bad example out to the students.

Closing this centre down is out of order in another view because they have gained 20,00 dollars from private people in order to help. This is more than many other departments and that if this centre stayed open then the school would be able to bring in more money which will help the reputation because this money can be used to help with better professors or a larger pay so that the professors keep up there good work.

Another angle to look at this piece is that should a big university close down their ethic’s centre. This is giving the students disrespect and if they think that they do not have any help in this department maybe people will forget about their ethics and this will make the students do things in the wrong way.

I feel that the centre should be opened because having people guide you through ethics is what we need in this world to make sure that everyone stays on the straight and narrow.

INVESTMENT BANKING

This article is about Dubai’s faltering finances sent shudders throughout the world, thought the impact was perhaps most felt in London. The London banks were the banks that had loan more money to the emirate. The article says that HSBC, Standard Chartered and Barclays have some of the biggest exposure to the financially strapped emirate. Now, those banks that pulled in millions of dollars in fees financing those ventures may be forced to take billions of dollars in write-downs on those loans. According to the Bank of international Settlements (via Alphaville) foreign banks have more than $ 123 billions of dollars in write-downs on those loans. The article also says that the default is about $ 15 billion, but not all of the emirate federation’s debt face default: much of it belongs to Abu Dhabi, whose oil supplies make it financially stronger. It is unclear whether the banks sold off their loans, distributing them to investors around the world. That may leave others, including smaller banks, hedge funds and private equity firms, in the lurch if Dubai’s investment arms topple.

Actually Dubai’s start over building properties in their own land without thinking of the stability of the world economic, I think that the problem when to far because they knew about the world recession and they ignored the consequences of bad international economic. It doesn’t matter if you have the best of the best properties if the economic is not stable, no reasonable person would buy a property with this kind of economic. Also the banks have some fault, they loan too much money to one area.  Now the banks would have to lose some profits, the only affected would be the private sector. Now all the debt would be dividing between all the investors, the only problem is that some investors had put their live savings in these banks.  I think that is unmoral to take advantage of investors because you want to created in empire without thinking of the consequences.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/british-banks-may-feel-most-pain-if-dubai-defaults/?ref=business

Obama declines to set Guantánamo closure date in Fox News interview

Obama declines to set Guantánamo closure date in Fox News interview

This article, written by Daniel Nasaw, is about Barack Obama’s politics and the problems he is faced with at the moment. It deals with topics like the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the plans of the Israelis to build further settlements in West Bank, the new book of Sarah Palin, and finally with Obama’s plans to close Guantánamo.

Actually, Barack Obama promised during his campaign to close the prison Guantánamo  within a year. The problem was that he was faced with rigid resistance of the Republicans. The behavior of the Republicans and the prison Guantánamo as a whole is ethically not justifiable. It is ethically wrong to put people into jail without any process in front of a court. I know that a lot of Americans are afraid of further terrorist attacks, but giving up the idea of liberty and civil rights is not the answer. One should remember how the reaction of the Americans would be, if American citizens are put into jail in Africa, Asia or Europe without any proven facts. I suppose most Americans would freak out. I do not want to affront the USA by writing this article. It is just very important to be able to put oneself in the position of the opponent in order to solve conflicts. Additionally, it is quite funny to me that strong proponents of the libertarian view, like the Republicans, are against the plans from Mr. Obama. They claim that liberty and no restriction through the government is actually the solution to the most problems.

Simple plan ‘means no need for third Heathrow runway’

Simple plan ‘means no need for third Heathrow runway’

This article, written by Dan Milmo, is about the discussion of how Heathrow, the main airport in London, should deal with operating capacities. One the one hand, they debate the extension of night flights with the upcoming drawback of increasing noise. On the other hand, they consider building a new runway, which is quite expensive. In both scenarios, the whole area of the airport has to be changed. Therefore, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the aviation regulator of the UK, argues that it has to be considered seriously. According to John Stewart, chairman of Heathrow Association for the control of Airport Noise (HACAN), one of the main disadvantages in extending flying hours is that it would violate the existing law.

The summarized article is a great example in regards to the topic Speciesism, which we discussed in class. Speciesism means that effects of our actions on other animals have no direct moral significance. A good example is building this runway at Heathrow Airport. In this example, humans just calculate the costs of the project but do not think about other effects like reducing the wildlife in this area. Singer believes that this aspect is no argument and compares it with slavery and racism. He said that the white racists, the slaveowners, did not take the interests of their slaves into account. These white racists limited their moral concern to their own race, so the suffering of a black person did not have the same moral significance as the suffering of a white person, and this is not justifiable at all.

This behavior of the decision maker at Heathrow Airport is indeed not justifiable because not only expenses or drawbacks for humans should be considered, but also how it would affect the animals in this area.

Workers act to avoid business closures

Workers act to avoid business closures

The article, ”Workers act to avoid business closures,” is primarily about how the workers in the UK support their employees during the economic crisis. The author, Graham Snowdown, outlines the measurements of how the laborers bear their entrepreneurs by accepting unpaid overtime, a pay freeze, or no pay rise. All in all, 53% of the workforce accepted one thing or another in order to avoid losing their job. In comparison to former recessions, like in the 1990s, employers keep in mind that to lay-off workers actually leads to the fact that they become desperate or unhappy. In terms of motivation and productivity, this would be not preferable. Even though some companies follow this quite new approach, I would like to relate this article to Adam Smith and his ideas concerning labor unions.

Adam Smith recognized that there is fundamental imbalance between laborers and their employers. He claimed that the society would have no laws to lower the price of work but enough laws not to raise it. Finally, he mentioned that a worker should be as valuable to the employer as the employer is to the worker. Thus, some companies realized that this fact might be an important point to consider, not because of social responsibility but rather to increase productivity. The problem in this matter is that employers have tremendous power over individual workers. They can hire and fire, set work hours and wages, create rules and control working hours. For that reason, labor unions are useful in order to give the worker a voice. The unions are able to protect the worker and can, for instance, negotiate wages and working hours. In conclusion, one can say that the voluntary behavior of corporations, like in this article, is a good approach, but labor unions are needed.

Climate change: Gulf Stream collapse could be like a disaster movie

Climate change: Gulf Stream collapse could be like a disaster movie

The article, “Climate change: Gulf stream collapse could be like a disaster movie,” written by Robin McKie, is mainly about the change of the climate in Europe, which would be caused by the change of the Gulf Stream. The author of the article relates his thoughts to the disruption to the Gulf Stream, which took place 12,800 years ago and caused the latest Ice Age. He mentions the Hollywood blockbuster, “The Day After Tomorrow,” where the Ice Age occurred within a day, in order to show the reader what could happen to the world. According to Patterson, a scientist, this scenario would be unrealistic, but the Gulf Stream could be blocked within a couple of months. Patterson and a team of scientists proved this fact by investigating a lake in Ireland, where life had disappeared within three months. By describing this incident, he mentions that it could recur. Under those circumstances, Europe would again be completely frozen.

This is a fascinating article that describes what could happen if human beings did not change their daily behavior. Therefore, I would like to relate the article to the tragedy of the commons. In this theory, traditionally, business and private people considered the environment and their resources as limitless. In other words, air, water, land and other natural resources are unlimited, and everybody can use them as much as one like. The “tragedy of the commons” describes the effect that everybody believes that his/her contribution to the pollution makes no difference, but the cumulative result actually leads to a destruction of nature. Finally, everyone is worse off because the destruction of the environment will affect all people. Here is the relation to the article. It might be that we do not see these effects directly, but if the Gulf Stream changed, or completely disappeared, we would definitely be affected by it.

College’s too-fat-to-graduate rule under fire

Education with health requirements? Now this is definitely a radical idea. Students at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania not only have to take their required curriculum classes but any student who has a Body Mass Index of 30 or above is required to take or test out of a health course. This is the first requirement of its kind and is raising some issues among some of the students who attend the school.

Personally I find this rule to be offensive and unethical. Not all students are required to pass the health class only those with the BMI of 30 or greater. I find this prejudicial. Students attend college to receive an education in their desired field of study. If the area of study was physical education, I would understand the requirement. I don’t understand where the college administration thinks it is okay to require students to pass a class, especially a health course, when the class is not field related.

The university feels they are making a stand against obesity by imposing the requirement. One question not addressed by the article is: how many of the workers at this university have a body mass index of 30 or above? This would be quite interesting to know since the university most likely offers health insurance benefits. Would the university not gain more from having a healthier staff than healthier students? Also, what is the university’s stand on alcohol? Should it require Alcohol Awareness classes since most college age students binge drink?

Commentary on ‘Ethics of Smoking in Restaurants’

I’m from the Washington, D.C. area, and smoking has been banned in restaurants for a couple of years now.  To be honest with you, I’ve seen more people out at restaurants with their families.  From a sales perspective, restaurants have actually increased sales due to the smoking ban because more families feel they can take their young children out and not have to worry about smoke exposure.

Personally, I believe that because smokers have made that decision to smoke, and potentially cause harm to their bodies, that they should not potentially cause harm to the bodies of others who did not make that same choice.  Why should non-smokers have to boycott their favorite restaurants because they enjoy having healthy lungs? Smokers are well aware they are not only harming themselves, but the innocent people around them, since they don’t care, why not ask them to  step outside when they want a cigarette?  Since you say it should be a choice whether or not to avoid smoke by not going to certain restaurants, then why not allow smoking everywhere including public places such as malls and movie theaters?  They don’t allow it, because it should not be a choice.

If you chose to smoke, you can smoke outside no one is stopping you.  What they are trying to stop is the loss of lives from second hand effects of smoking, the innocent people who chose NOT to put themselves at risk.  If you do chose to put yourself at risk and smoke, do it on your own watch, not on the watch of everyone else who does not.

Talk to the families who have lost loved ones because of second-hand smoke.  They might disagree with you slightly.   A non-smoker should not have to worry about where they can and can not go and what they can and can not do, because they chose to do what’s in the best interest for themselves and their community.

‘Recession adds Fuel to Workplace Gossip’

Job fears, economic woes send the office rumor mill into overdrive

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34149723/ns/business-careers/

As all of us keep hearing about the recession, many people still fear for their jobs.  In response, people are gossiping now more now than ever on the clock, in hopes it gets back to their bosses, so the person that is on the chopping block so to speak, losses their job, and unfairly the instigator, the gossipers, keep theirs.

My concern, is  how is it that people that think this way (gossiping about someone else will get them fired?) actually get these jobs in the first place?  Clearly, they don’t have the best interests of the company in mind, let alone their colleagues.  What happened to checking gossip at the office door?

Here is a crazy suggestion, what if,  employees would spend more time focusing on their job instead of rumors, so that they would improve business for their company, and in turn they can keep their jobs, and if the company continues to do well, their colleagues will keep their jobs too?  What about that sense of job-satisfaction? Does it involve around the break room talking about who did what when and where?

Or is it that these employees could care less about job satisfaction and doing what’s best for the company?  Is that all people care about are themselves?