Sweatshops and Consumer Choices

We consider a case where consumers are faced with a choice between sweatshop-produced clothing and identical clothing produced in high-income countries. We argue that it is morally better for consumers to purchase clothing produced in sweatshops and then to compensate sweatshop workers for the difference between their actual wage and a fair wage than it is for them either to purchase the sweatshop clothing without this compensatory transfer or to purchase clothing produced in high-income countries

Are we all exploiters?

This paper argues that two single‐factor accounts of exploitation are inadequate and instead defends a two‐factor account. Purely distributive accounts of exploitation, which equate exploitation with unfair transaction, make exploitation pervasive and cannot deliver the intuition that exploiters are blameworthy. Recent, non‐distributive alternatives, which make unfairness unnecessary for exploitation, largely avoid these problems, but their arguments for the non‐necessity of unfairness are unconvincing. This paper defends a two factor account according to which A exploits B iff A gains unfairly from B and either A believes that the gains he receives in the transaction wrong B, or A is culpably unaware that the gains he receives in the transaction wrong B. This account avoids the problems of non‐distributive approaches and also delivers the intuition that exploiters are blameworthy

Virtues, Consequences, and the Market

A traditional—but increasingly unconvincing—critique of markets challenges their superiority in terms of generating welfare. After all, markets can be alienating, they can generate inequality, and, arguably, allow for the exchange of goods that ought not to be traded. If these effects collectively made people who live in market societies worse off than those who do not, the implementation of markets would be unacceptable. However, while markets do have some of these negative effects, the welfare and material benefits they provide are massive. In Virgil Storr and Ginny Choi provide substantial evidence for the conclusion that not only are “people who live in market societies […] wealthier, healthier, happier, and better connected than people who live in nonmarket societies” but these benefits are available to the rich and poor alike: “The least advantaged in market societies are better off than the least advantaged in nonmarket societies and may be better off than the most well-off in some nonmarket societies”

Housing Price Determinants in the Lynchburg, Virginia Area

The effect of certain variables on the price of a house is a subject that has been very widely studied. This paper attempts to generate a pricing model for houses in the Lynchburg VA, area using the physical characteristics of a home and other locational variables. The model will attempt to create a representation of the housing price equation for the market in the area. The results of the equation will allow the ability to predict future housing prices in the market, given certain physical and locational values that are similar for the area.

Wrestling with Punishment: The Role of the BC Court of Appeal in the Law of Sentencing

This article, one in a collection of articles on the history and jurisprudential contributions of the British Columbia Court of Appeal on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, looks at the role and the work of the court in the area of sentencing since the court was first given jurisdiction to hear sentence appeals in 1921. In the three broad periods that we canvass, we draw out the sometimes surprising, often unique, and frequently provocative ways in which the BCCA has, over its history, wrestled with the practice of criminal punishment and, with it, the basic assumptions of our system of criminal justice. We explore the important role that the BCCA has played in articulating a vision of what constitutes a just social response to criminal wrongdoing. The court’s work in this area has been rich, its views on sentencing as mercurial as the practices of punishment. At times the court has served quite directly as an institutional voice for dominant social views of punishment, whether they were of a more sternly retributive form or reflected an era of hope in rehabilitation. Yet, in more recent years, the jurisprudence of the court has also included strong voices reflecting a critical posture towards traditional assumptions in our theories and practices of sentencing. In the current political climate that finds a retributive ethos in the criminal law in ascendancy, this jurisprudence reminds us of the value of this posture - one that asks us to think more deeply, critically, and cautiously about the assumptions that tacitly guide our system of criminal justice

Why buy local?

This article critically assesses the moral arguments that speak in favour of three consumer options: buying local food, buying global (non-local) food, and buying global food while also purchasing carbon offsets to mitigate the environmental impact of food transportation. We argue that because the offsetting option allows one to provide economic benefits to the poorest food workers while also mitigating the environmental impact of food transportation it is morally superior to the alternatives

Wrestling with Punishment: The Role of the BC Court of Appeal in the Law of Sentencing

This article, one in a collection of articles on the history and jurisprudential contributions of the British Columbia Court of Appeal on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, looks at the role and the work of the court in the area of sentencing since the court was first given jurisdiction to hear sentence appeals in 1921. In the three broad periods that we canvass, we draw out the sometimes surprising, often unique, and frequently provocative ways in which the BCCA has, over its history, wrestled with the practice of criminal punishment and, with it, the basic assumptions of our system of criminal justice. We explore the important role that the BCCA has played in articulating a vision of what constitutes a just social response to criminal wrongdoing. The court’s work in this area has been rich, its views on sentencing as mercurial as the practices of punishment. At times the court has served quite directly as an institutional voice for dominant social views of punishment, whether they were of a more sternly retributive form or reflected an era of hope in rehabilitation. Yet, in more recent years, the jurisprudence of the court has also included strong voices reflecting a critical posture towards traditional assumptions in our theories and practices of sentencing. In the current political climate that finds a retributive ethos in the criminal law in ascendancy, this jurisprudence reminds us of the value of this posture - one that asks us to think more deeply, critically, and cautiously about the assumptions that tacitly guide our system of criminal justice

Case report: retained gutta-percha as a cause for persistent maxillary sinusitis and pain

Dental sources of infection can produce acute and chronic maxillary sinusitis. In some cases, the source of the infection may be related to the presence of endodontic materials in the oral cavity. In this article, we report a case of retained gutta-percha in the maxillary sinus resulting in chronic sinusitis

Erratum to: The effects of dynamic loading on the intervertebral disc

Loading is important to maintain the balance of matrix turnover in the intervertebral disc (IVD). Daily cyclic diurnal assists in the transport of large soluble factors across the IVD and its surrounding circulation and applies direct and indirect stimulus to disc cells. Acute mechanical injury and accumulated overloading, however, could induce disc degeneration. Recently, there is more information available on how cyclic loading, especially axial compression and hydrostatic pressure, affects IVD cell biology. This review summarises recent studies on the response of the IVD and stem cells to applied cyclic compression and hydrostatic pressure. These studies investigate the possible role of loading in the initiation and progression of disc degeneration as well as quantifying a physiological loading condition for the study of disc degeneration biological therapy. Subsequently, a possible physiological/beneficial loading range is proposed. This physiological/beneficial loading could provide insight into how to design loading regimes in specific system for the testing of various biological therapies such as cell therapy, chemical therapy or tissue engineering constructs to achieve a better final outcome. In addition, the parameter space of ‘physiological' loading may also be an important factor for the differentiation of stem cells towards most ideally ‘discogenic' cells for tissue engineering purpos

The paradox of exploitation: a new solution.

In this thesis I present a rights-based theory of exploitation. I argue that successful conceptions of exploitation should begin with the ordinary language claim that exploitation involves `taking unfair advantage'. Consequently, they must combine an account of what it means to take advantage of another with an account of when transactions are unfair. Existing conceptions of exploitation fail to provide adequate accounts of both aspects of exploitation. Hillel Steiner and John Roemer provide convincing accounts of the unfairness involved in exploitation, but because they fail to provide restrictive `advantage taking' conditions, their theories of exploitation include cases that we would not ordinarily describe as exploitations. Ruth Sample and Robert Goodin provide accounts that place a stronger emphasis on the attitudes involved in exploitation and the processes that bring it about. Unfortunately, these theories do not properly incorporate the unfairness aspect of exploitation. Consequently, they are either self-frustrating or incomplete. I provide a conception of exploitation that combines both aspects. I claim that..