You’re demanding gifts be made, and how is that ethical?
This question sounds like it’s meant to be rhetorical, as if demanding gifts be made is obviously not ethical. But there are quite widely accepted moral systems (utilitarianism, for instance) that do demand that gifts be made in certain cases—sufficiently wealthy people are morally obligated to donate some of their wealth to charity, for instance.
I’m not saying that in the case under discussion Greenspan had an obligation to pay women as much as men were being paid (it’s a complex issue and I’m not sure what I think about it yet), but I do think that simply pointing out that Greenspan had no economic incentive to pay them that much is a pretty unconvincing response to CellBioGuy’s moral contention.
sufficiently wealthy people are morally obligated to donate some of their wealth to charity, for instance.
Yes, under utilitarianism, but I’ve already pointed out that any such imperative would be vastly exceeded by other imperatives.
I’m also not sure whether it works under deontological systems. One way to universalize such a claim is that you should pay people as much as they could earn under any state of affairs, but naturally that leads to you never making money and going broke as it’s equivalent to demanding you give away all gains from trade: ‘John makes me $1000 and currently costs me $500 in salary; however if the job market were much tighter, then in that counterfactual universe I’d be willing to pay him anywhere up to $999 but not higher, so I must morally pay him $999 right now—anything else would be exploitation and discrimination’.
This question sounds like it’s meant to be rhetorical, as if demanding gifts be made is obviously not ethical. But there are quite widely accepted moral systems (utilitarianism, for instance) that do demand that gifts be made in certain cases—sufficiently wealthy people are morally obligated to donate some of their wealth to charity, for instance.
I’m not saying that in the case under discussion Greenspan had an obligation to pay women as much as men were being paid (it’s a complex issue and I’m not sure what I think about it yet), but I do think that simply pointing out that Greenspan had no economic incentive to pay them that much is a pretty unconvincing response to CellBioGuy’s moral contention.
Yes, under utilitarianism, but I’ve already pointed out that any such imperative would be vastly exceeded by other imperatives.
I’m also not sure whether it works under deontological systems. One way to universalize such a claim is that you should pay people as much as they could earn under any state of affairs, but naturally that leads to you never making money and going broke as it’s equivalent to demanding you give away all gains from trade: ‘John makes me $1000 and currently costs me $500 in salary; however if the job market were much tighter, then in that counterfactual universe I’d be willing to pay him anywhere up to $999 but not higher, so I must morally pay him $999 right now—anything else would be exploitation and discrimination’.