Business Ethics Reflection Paper -- due December 8 (choice of topic and preliminary list of sources -- just so I know you are reading -- due November 17) -- at least FIVE pages typewritten and double-spaced, with no maximum limit.

Discuss one of the following issues. Include short-term and long-term consequences associated with each, including consequences for the individual, for society, and for the environment (if relevant). Apply principles of utilitarianism and Kant's categorical and practical imperative, as well as other methods, to evaluate possible solutions or strategies.

1. Outsourcing and the American Middle Class.
2. Outsourcing and National Security.
3. Oil Depletion and Dependence on the Automobile.
4. The Growing Power and Wealth of CEO's.
5. Sexual Harassment and the Hostile Work Environment.
6. Global Warming and Climate Change.
7. Advertising and the Growth of Consumerism.
8. The Wal-Mart Effect.
9. Greed vs. Need.
10. Social Darwinism.
11. Sweathops in America and Abroad.
12. Oil Depletion and Suburbia.
13. The Credit or Finance Industry.
14. Affirmative Action.
15. Availability of Health Care.
16. Localization or Globalization?
17. Externalization by Corporations.
18. Watching Television.
19. Stockholder Ethics.
20. Employee Loyalty.
21. Corporate Social Responsibility.
22. Current Regulation of Food and/or Drugs.
23. Buddhist Economics.
24. Political Advertising.
25. Privacy in the Workplace.
26. Computer Crime.
27. Dependence on Imported Goods.
28. Consumption-Based vs. Production-Based Economies.
29. Sustainability and Economic Growth.
30. Advertising and/or Education.
31. Corporate Ownership of Media.
32. Authoritarian vs. Democratic Management Strategies.
33. New Urbanism.
34. Declining Power of Unions.
35. Quality Control in Production.
36. Milton Friedman's Canon.

    -- OR --

    Design a Topic of Your Choosing. It must be cleared with me in advance (before November 17)!

Remember that this is a thought paper. Use research to give you something to think about, to get you thinking. Don't fill your paper with quotes, paraphrases, and the like. Above all, DO NOT PLAGIARIZE (quick way to get a zero). Process your research through your brain so that it no longer looks like the original undigested data. Make the issue your own. Choose a topic that matters to you, and run hard with it.

Other guidelines: Demonstrate through your thoughts (not simply uninformed opinions) that you know what you are talking about. Show that you have used a process of deliberation, including foresight and values criticism, to support your reality-based conclusions. Become an expert (so far as this is possible in a short time) at whatever space of the vast field of applied ethics you have decided to emphasize.

See format guidelines here.

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