Locke in the News

Wind Turbines Leave Some in a Huff by Jim Carlton was published in The Wall Street Journal. Michael Deneui resides in San Francisco; Deneui is a 40 year old telecommunications consultant. Deneui wanted to be more “eco-friendly” so he decided to build a wind turbine hoping that it would result in a reduced energy bill. Though Deneui wanted to be more eco-friendly there was an issue with his wind turbine, “its pole is 35 feet tall. Mounted in the backyard, it can be seen a block away. And when it's on, the blades sometimes cast light reflections” (Carlton, 2009), which has caused a few issues with the neighbors. A few neighbors have complained of noise issues coming from the blades, whereas other neighbors have stated that though they can see it is not of any kind of nuisance.

Ethical Issue: Deneui built a wind turbine because he wanted to be more eco-friendly and save on his energy bill. He installed on his property with his money, so why is this so bothersome to the neighbors? If your neighbor did a similar thing would you approve of it?

Locke would argue that it is your own body and you put your own labor in it, therefore, you now own it. Deneui is not breaking any natural limits, he is not wasting anything or taking anything from mankind, so it should not be a concern to his neighbors. He is not installing it on anyone’s property other than his own. Locks view of money represents the labor value, and that is just what Deneui did, he put his money into the labor of the wind turbine.

Aristotle In the News

On January 15 there was an article on BBC news online titled JP Morgan Chase reports $3.3bn profits, followed by the sentence “Wall Street bank JP Morgan Chase has reported profits of $3.3bn for the last three months of 2009.” The article continues to compare the last three month profits of 3.3 billion to the total profits of 702 million at the end of 2008. The total profits for the year of 2009 were 11.2 billion where as the total staff compensation (salaries and bonuses) is around 27 billion. And investment bankers as individuals made a grand total of about 9.3 billion.

Ethical Issue: The investment bankers received a bonus that was 21% higher from the previous year, even though the company (JP Morgan Chase) lost 2.2 billion just in credit card business in the year 2008. So where is all this money coming from, that investment bankers are receiving? President Obama stated “If these companies are in good enough shape to afford massive bonuses, they are surely in good enough shape to afford paying back every penny to taxpayers"

Aristotle would argue the two senses of wealth being the art of acquisition which has limits; once we reach what we need we don’t need it anymore and the art of wealth-getting where riches and property have no limits. But are there are really no limits? Aristotle believes that business is necessary but looks down on corporation as a whole. Aristotle states that “true wealth is limited, but money making has no limit” (70). If JP Morgan is giving out 9.3 billion dollars in bonuses Aristotle would argue that the company should share when it is essential, if poverty levels are going up and companies are distributing billions of dollars in bonuses, then those individuals should pay taxes, and not be given special treatment.