Ethical blindness, EGMs and public policy : a tentative essay comparing the EGM and tobacco industries

Arguing a case by way of analogy can be perilous. Each problem has its own particulars that analogy and examples from other domains often obscure. Therefore it is with some trepidation that this paper discusses similarities and differences between the poker-machine (EGM) and the tobacco industries. The author has no special knowledge of the tobacco industry beyond that of the reasonably informed citizen. Rather it is out of concern about ethics and product safety for EGMs that the paper addresses the following question: what, if any, are the substantive ethical differences between the EGM industry and the tobacco industry

The ageing workforce? Separating fact from hype

This article explains that much of the hype about workforce ageing in Australia is either exaggerated or plainly wrong. It is true that the workforce is ageing, as is our society generally. However, bigger and more important workforce developments have occurred and are occurring. The increase in women's participation and changes in labour demand derived from effective demand are far more significant. The paper demonstrates the one-sidedness of the supporting arguments for a 'crisis' of workforce ageing. It explains that a 'cult' of early retirement is a myth and proposals such as raising the statutory pension and superannuation preservation ages are unfounded. Arguments for an ageing 'crisis' have more to do with the neo-liberal ideological obsession with lower government spending and, in particular, reduced and or 'offloaded' welfare spending

The Ageing Workforce? Separating Fact from Hype

Abstract This article explains that much of the hype about workforce ageing i

The No 'Ought' from 'Is' Argument: Faulty thinking in Ethics and Social Science

According to Hilary Putnam, the ‘moral is clear: when we are dealing with any important value disagreement, we assume facts are irrelevant at our peril. No convincing logical reason can be given for the logical irrelevance of fact to value judgements, even if we accept the positivist conception of what a “fact” is.’ (2002, p. 78) This paper explores why the dichotomies engendered by the ‘positivist’ approach – fact/value, positive/normative and descriptive/evaluative – are false. The main reason, the paper argues, is that the fundamental principle underlying the approach fails. This principle, the ‘no ought from is argument’ (or the NOFIA), is the formally structured argument that a value (ought) cannot logically be derived from a fact (is). The paper rejects the NOFIA and, especially, its iconic status in economics. Using criticisms of the NOFIA by John Searle, Amartya Sen, Hilary Putnam, Vivian Walsh and Julius Kovesi, as well as the critical realist method of explanatory critique, the paper argues for a form of moral realism.</jats:p

The poker-machine state in Australia: a consideration of ethical and policy issues

The 'poker-machine state' is a description of a state of affairs that exists in Victoria, Australia. We can describe this state in part by calculating one or another index to estimate the harmful impact of poker machines(high-intensity electronic gaming machines or EGMs). The nature of the poker-machine business means that this impact must occur. Full description, however, requires us to describe four additional aspects of the poker-machine state. First, heavy users of poker machines necessarily lose control. Second, the poker-machine state necessarily causes and constitutes harm. Third, our governments perpetrate the harm. Fourth, the agents of harm, business corporations, profit from the harm. The various aspects of this description provide evidence for the conclusion that the poker-machine state is unethical

The Importance of Cultural and Economic Influences Behind the Decision to Attend Higher Education

This paper examines the relationship between economic and cultural variables and the decision to attend university. We find that a student is more likely to aspire to attend university if: they have the Internet at home; are encouraged by their teachers; or attend a Catholic or independent school rather than a public school. Our analysis also suggests that the level of parent support is important (with a marginal effect larger than that for teacher encouragement) and this level of support may be linked to the parent's level of educational attainment. Importantly, we find that including cultural and economic variables in a model of students’ aspirations significantly increases the power to predict when a student does not aspire to attend university

Moral Description: Overcoming the Fact-Value Dichotomy in Social Research

Values in social research are a vexed question. However, they cannot and should not be avoided. This article argues against the familiar fact-value dichotomy and presents a cognitive approach to values based inter alia on the views of the philosophers JuEus Kovesi (1967) and Hilary Putnam (1990, 2(02) and the economist philosopher Amartya Sen (1982, 1(87). The article concludes that rejecting the fact-value dichotomy does not mean that "anything goes." On the contrary, it proposes reuniting facts and values in a common, factually-grounded and rational cognitive enterprise