LSteele Ethical Paper free essay sample

As an anthropologist, my answer would be the relationship between ideology and power. Dominant ideologies form the baseline for consensus in almost every society. It is important to understand ideologies that constitute the normative baseline are a social construct of the dominant group, meaning they are not innate or fixed. They can be changed. I believe that historicism is responsible for all social and cultural phenomena, including poverty. Similar to many human problems, attempts at addressing poverty should ask what social and cultural structures allow poverty to exist?Poverty is a consequence of power imbalances and socially constructed inequality influenced by ideology. It is a human condition that operates with homeostasis functions (unique ideology), sustaining and perpetuating the culture Of poverty. It is important to note that merely identifying the root cause of poverty addresses only one aspect of the problem. Although imbalanced social structures are responsible for creating poverty, the condition of poverty, as well as the ideologies it produces must also be understood and addressed in order to end the cycle of poverty. We will write a custom essay sample on LSteele Ethical Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It is necessary to take a holistic approach when addressing poverty as a human condition and be able to view cause and condition as separate, but equal concerns. Anthropologist Oscar Lewis created the term culture of poverty to show how poverty conditions ideology. He argued that ideologies learned in childhood perpetuate the cycle of poverty across generations and consistently identified four factors that sustain the culture of poverty: marginality, helplessness, dependency, and inferiority. Individuals born Into poverty are conditioned to believe they do not have the ability to be successful.It is important to understand that this theory is based on larger social and cultural factors rather than on the individual. The culture of poverty is more a state of thinking, a set of beliefs, as opposed to a state of being (Lewis Farce, 1959). II: Application of Utilitarianism, Demonology, and Rails Distributive Justice Arguments In this section Of the ethical reflection paper two items set forth in President Beams agenda aimed at reducing poverty in the United States will be argued from three ethical frameworks.These items include raising wages and investing in children. A: Raising Wages According to Michael Sanded, utilitarianism, a consequentialit y form of moral reasoning formulated by British philosopher Jeremy Beneath, locates morality in the consequence of an act or the state of the world that results from the thing you do (201 1). It sees our actions as ways to make the world better. The objective of utilitarianism is to maximize utility, or happiness, as exemplified by the guiding principle, the greatest good for the greatest number (Jimenez, 1998).From this perspective, raising the minimum wage would result happier, more fulfilled employees. For an employee, the ability to earn a living wage would increase their job satisfaction as well as their productivity, subsequently decreasing the companys rate of turnover as well as any associated costs of employee turnover. Demonology argues for action out of duty. A categorical form of moral reasoning formulated by German philosopher Emmanuel Kant, this ethical framework locates morality in certain duties and rights and views consequences as morally irrelevant.Emmanuel Kant says that insofar as our actions have moral worth, what confers moral worth is our capacity to rise above self-interest and inclination and to act out of duty. Michael Sanded simply states, The moral value of an action depends on the motive do the right thing for the right reason(2011). As mentioned by President Obama, under current law, a full-time worker with two children earning minimum wage will still raise his or her family in poverty. (Biotech, 2013).This account maintains that every individual has the right to earn adequate wages to support themselves, arguing for a moral obligation on behalf of workers currently receiving minimum wage benefits and the federal government of the United States to respect the dignity of their citizens as human beings by offering a morally acceptable living wage that would allow for the individual to rise above the poverty level. Moreover, allowing the market to determine workers wage benefits would not be acting in accordance with the duty to act.Rails Distributive Justice theory, developed by modern American philosopher John Rails, maintains each society enacts a ramekin of laws, institutions, and policies, resulting in unequal distributions of benefits and burdens amongst me beers of society (Lament, 1996). Future consequences society faces, rather than the moral duties of individuals are the primary concerns. According to this model, a living wage should be enacted as a tool to reduce income inequality. B: Investing in Children Ethnologist argue that education is a basic human right essential for the exercise of all other human rights (The Right to Education, 2014).