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Curriculum Ethics, Justice & Economic Life

Ethics, Justice & Economic Life

Fairness, obligation, and the moral questions markets can't answer on their own.

  1. What Is Economic Justice? An introduction to the main ways philosophers and economists think about fairness in economic life. 📄 Read-aloud
  2. John Rawls and the Veil of Ignorance A thought experiment for designing fair economic rules without knowing your own place in society. 📄 Read-aloud
  3. Equality of Opportunity vs Equality of Outcome Comparing two competing ideals for fairness: equal starting chances versus equal final results. 📄 Read-aloud
  4. The Ethics of Taxation Why taxation raises ethical questions about ownership, fairness, and the proper role of government. 📄 Read-aloud
  5. Sweatshops and Global Labor Ethics Examining the ethical debate over low-wage factory work in developing economies and global supply chains. 📄 Read-aloud
  6. Is Price Gouging Wrong? The Economics of Emergencies Weighing the moral objections to emergency price spikes against the economic case for letting prices rise. 📄 Read-aloud
  7. The Ethics of Inheritance and Wealth Transfer Examining whether passing wealth to the next generation is a fair extension of ownership or an obstacle to equal opportunity. 📄 Read-aloud
  8. Fair Trade vs Free Trade Comparing the free trade case for open markets with the fair trade case for guaranteed minimum standards. 📄 Read-aloud
  9. The Moral Limits of Markets Exploring whether some goods should never be bought and sold, even when a willing buyer and seller exist. 📄 Read-aloud
  10. Intergenerational Justice: Debt, Climate, and the Future How to weigh obligations to future generations who cannot vote, borrow, or advocate for themselves today. 📄 Read-aloud
  11. Universal Basic Income: An Ethical Case Weighing the ethical arguments for and against giving everyone a regular, unconditional cash payment. 📄 Read-aloud
  12. The Ethics of Automation and Job Loss Examining what employers and society owe workers whose jobs are displaced by machines and software. 📄 Read-aloud
  13. Corporate Social Responsibility: Real or PR? Examining whether corporate social responsibility genuinely changes company behavior or mainly serves marketing. 📄 Read-aloud
  14. Poverty, Charity, and the Duty to Help Examining how much individuals and societies owe to people in poverty, and through what means. 📄 Read-aloud
  15. Whistleblowing and Ethics in Finance Examining the ethical duties and risks facing employees who expose wrongdoing inside financial institutions. 📄 Read-aloud
  16. The Ethics of Algorithmic Decision-Making What's ethically different about a computer program deciding your loan or job application versus a human doing it. 📄 Read-aloud
  17. Reparations: The Economic and Ethical Debate The economic reasoning behind reparations proposals for historical injustice, and the practical questions that make them contested. 📄 Read-aloud
  18. The Ethics of Advertising to Children Why marketing directed at children raises distinct ethical concerns that don't apply to advertising aimed at adults. 📄 Read-aloud
  19. The Ethics of Price Discrimination When charging different customers different prices is fair and when it is exploitative, from student discounts to personalised online pricing. 📄 Read-aloud
  20. Child Labour: Economics and Ethics Why child labour persists, the economic and moral arguments around it, and which policies have reduced it most effectively. 📄 Read-aloud
  21. The Ethics of Tax Avoidance The difference between legal tax avoidance and illegal evasion, and the debate over whether aggressive avoidance is morally wrong. 📄 Read-aloud
  22. Living Wage vs Minimum Wage What a living wage is, how it differs from the legal minimum wage, and the ethical and economic debate over paying enough to live decently. 📄 Read-aloud

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