Waldron
Robeyns
St. Clair
Nandy
Wild Card
100
TRUE OR FALSE: Collective property is such that anyone can use it without having to get permission from anyone else.
False: The question describes common property. You need permission to access some collective properties, for example, military bases.
100
TRUE OR FALSE: Robeyns supports the view that citizens of a society have a right to minimal financial means.
True: This is the other side of the coin of her view that governments have a responsibility to ensure that its citizens have minimal financial means.
100
TRUE OR FALSE: In order to understand Norway's commitment to developmental aid, St. Clair thinks that we need to know what motivates people to act on what's right or wrong?
TRUE: We need to know more than what the right/wrong thing to do is, we need to know how to get people motivated to do the right thing. That's why she thinks it's so important to look into Norway's history---that will tell us things about the moral motivation of Norway's citizens.
100
TRUE OR FALSE: Nandy thinks that those who live below the poverty of life have a low quality of life.
FALSE: He thinks that they can have a good quality, noting that poor people and rich people in most countries have similar products (e.g., in America both rich and poor own things like smartphones).
100
MULTIPLE CHOICE: The economist and philosopher Amartya Sen is discussed in which reading? (a) Waldron (b) Robeyns (c) St. Clair (d) Nandy
(c): He gets discussed in connection to Norway's view that poverty should be understood in terms of (lack of) freedom.
200
TRUE OR FALSE: The kinds of opportunities that Waldron thinks is valuable are legal opportunities.
FALSE: Legally, you have the opportunity to by a house in your homeless. But that's not a *real* opportunity, on Waldron's view. And it's *real* opportunities that matter.
200
TRUE OR FALSE: Robeyns thinks that we have a right to all that we earn through our jobs.
False: She thinks we undersell how our abilities and opportunities depend on social structures and on the efforts of others (e.g., previous generations, the suffering of the "global south"). So, we are not entitled to all that we earn, which will be a factor in paying for the basic income.
200
TRUE OR FALSE: The genesis approach asks questions about what is right and wrong with respect to choice about "societal development."
FALSE: That describes "Developmental Ethics." The genesis approach is related---it seeks to reconstruct the developmental ethic of a specific country.
200
TRUE OR FALSE: Nandy thinks that poverty and destitution have always been with us, more or less.
FALSE: While Nandy does think that about poverty, he thinks that destitution is a relatively recent and growing phenomena. This actually should give us hope that we can one day get rid of destitution, since it is not a necessary feature of societies.
200
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Waldron's approach to issues involving poverty most resembles which other approach? (a) Norway's Action Plan (b) The Basic Income proposal (c) The developmental view from Nandy's reading (d) Attempts to normalize and stigmatize "poverty"
(a): Both understand the harms of poverty in terms of freedom. Being in poverty makes one less free.
300
MULTIPLE CHOICE: According to Waldron, homeless people are allowed to *be* in our society only to the extent that our society is: (a) Pro-Basic Income (b) Tolerant. (c) Communist (d) Democratic
(c) Communist (where this just means: where our society has common property)
300
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Which of the following is *not* a benefit Robeyns cites in favor of the Basic Income proposal? (a) Creates solidarity among members of a society. (b) Makes it possible to reduce work hours to care for family members. (c) Reduces income insecurity caused by temporary or insecure jobs. (d) Eradicates poverty traps.
(a): That's language from St. Clair on Norway's history. (b)-(d) are all among the benefits Robeyns cites in favor of her proposal.
300
According to the "Action Plan," a person is in poverty if: (a) They have no income whatsoever. (b) They lack the freedom to meet their basic needs. (c) They are in the bottom 10 percent in terms of income. (d) They are homeless.
(b): Norway's proposal is unique because it sees poverty as a matter of freedom. Since we have an obligation to promote the freedom of others, Norway's view is that we have a moral obligation to end poverty.
300
MULTIPLE CHOICE: According to Nandy, abolishing poverty is incompatible with the aims which of the following models: (a) To achieve a stage where poverty exists, but is no longer in the public consciousness. (b) A commitment to liberal principles of freedom. (c) To encourage urbanization and development to foster a healthy economy. (d) To come up with a static and unchanging model of what poverty is.
(a): This model, which aims at ignoring poverty, cannot abolish poverty because once it is reduced to a certain point, the poor can safely be ignored by politicians.
300
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Consider a case where accepting a job could cause the loss of means-tested welfare for other members of one's household. This is an example of: (a) Destitution (b) The genesis approach (c) A poverty trap (d) The libertarian catastrophe
(c): Such a situation provides an incentive for one to avoid doing something that would get them out of poverty; it keeps them trapped in poverty.
400
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Which of the following describes the *modified* libertarian catastrophe? (a) There is nowhere that homeless people are allowed to legally be whenever they choose. (b) You are free to do anything in a place, but you are not free to be in that place. (c) We discover that we live in a society where nobody has free will to perform actions of their own choice. (d) Common property gets regulated so that homeless people cannot perform elementary human activities.
(d): Common property by itself is not enough for Waldron. You must also have the freedom to perform elementary human activities, which are important for your survival. This is the real threat to societies like ours, unlike the pure libertarian catastrophe.
400
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Robeyns considers the objection that the Basic Income proposal could contribute to gender inequality. Which best captures one of her replies to the objection? (a) The proposal would actually reinforce the traditional gender division of labor. (b) The proposal would benefit the most economically vulnerable women. (c) The possible harms are counterbalanced by the benefits of the proposal. (d) There is no evidence that the harms mentioned in the objection are likely to occur.
(b): By giving them options (e.g., the option to refuse to work bad jobs), the proposal actually empowers women in a unique way.
400
MULTIPLE CHOICE: What explains, according to St. Clair, Norway's commitment to promoting freedom and reducing inequality? (a) A commitment to free market principles. (b) Forging solidarity at the grass roots level. (c) Promoting and maintaining an attitude of charity. (d) Their defense of individual and group interests.
(b): A culture of solidarity helped to created a will to commit to the freedom of others in order to promote their dignity, which leads to a commitment to substantial foreign aid.
400
Which of the following is a problem Nandy raises for views that try to change the definition of poverty to remove associated stigmas? (a) Deep down, we know what poverty really is so we will never accept the revised definition. (b) We can't effectively address destitution since we will be busy trying to remove our own poverty. (c) Everyone will end up with their own definition of poverty so we will have trouble discussing it. (d) People will just move the stigmas over to the new definition, so the problem will still be there.
(b): If we include poverty so that it is normal, then we will see ourselves as being in poverty and will be preoccupied with our own position instead of trying to remove destitution from others.
400
MULTIPLE CHOICE: One of the readings provides an example of the genesis approach, using which country? (a) India (b) The United States (c) Norway (d) Denmark
(c): Norway, in the St. Clair reading (which is also where the term "genesis approach" is from).
500
SHORT ANSWER: What is the connection between the freedom to be somewhere and the freedom to do something.
Because you need to be somewhere to do anything, anyone who is not free to be any*where* is also not free to do any*thing*.
500
Give an example of a poverty trap.
Sample answer: working poor-quality, very low wage jobs does not provide a good incentive to leave welfare, since the job is unpleasant and does not provide much more money than welfare benefits would provide anyway.
500
SHORT ANSWER: What is a descriptive ethic?
It describes and analyzes a groups' ethical practices and doctrines.
500
SHORT ANSWER: What does Nandy say is the relationship between development and destitution?
Destitution will raise some out of poverty, but only by expanding destitution for others. So some get a little better, but at the expense of others who end up much worse in comparison.
500
MULTIPLE CHOICE: All the authors in this unit presuppose that we have a useful understanding of poverty except which one? (a) Waldron (b) Robeyns (c) St. Clair (d) Nandy
(d): Nandy argues that "poverty" is not a useful term because its definition is slippery and easily manipulated.
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