Here are two sample cases we discuss in our Ethics Core
at
(CORE 250: Applied
Ethical Reasoning)
An interesting
new trend has recently been pioneered in a
Hundreds of school districts all over
the
For the three major soft drink
manufacturers (which together control over 90% of the
But do the children themselves profit
from this trend? There is no doubt that
it provides more money for schools. Yet
there are important concerns. For
instance, according to the 1999 study “Liquid Candy”, kids now get almost 10%
of their caloric intake from soft drinks.
Each can of soda contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar, not to mention
the caffeine in Pepsi, Coke, Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper.[5]
More children than ever before
are obese, and early onset diabetes (which can be forestalled by proper diet)
is spreading at an alarming rate.
Corporate sponsored “educational”
materials create another problem. In the
words of a 1998 study, 80% of these materials “were biased, providing students
with incomplete or slanted information that favored the sponsor’s products and
views. Proctor & Gamble’s Decision Earth program taught that
clear-cut logging was actually good for the environment; teaching aids
distributed by the Exxon Education Foundation said that fossil fuels created
few environmental problems and that alternative sources of energy were too
expensive; a study guide sponsored by the American Coal Foundation dismissed
fears of the greenhouse effect…. The Consumers Union found Pizza Hut’s Book It!
Program – which awards a free personal Pan Pizza to children who reach targeted
reading levels – to be highly commercial.”[6] At the very least, there seems to be a
conflict of interest created by this new invasion of corporate
Perhaps the school advertising
movement opens the door to even more worrisome social trends. Consider what occurred on “Coke in Education”
day at
According to a
1999 study, approximately 5% of American adults have a gambling problem.[10]
This problem is most prevalent amongst the younger population, and can start as
early as high school. For adolescents and
college students, the figures average at around 15%.[11] A survey of 3,000 students in over 50 NJ high
schools revealed that more than 30% of the students gambled at least once a
week. Some of these students are already
in serious debt to loan sharks: “Tim, 17, was caught at an
And the
problem of compulsive gambling is getting worse. The above quoted 1999 study suggests that
over the past 20 years, gambling has increased by 20%. Even worse, in that same time-period, the
money spent on gambling has doubled.[13]
It seems safe
to say that in coming years, the main contributor to the spread of
gambling, especially among the younger population, will be the growth of
internet gambling. Gambling websites are
available to anyone, which makes a trip to a casino unnecessary. Although a credit card is needed in order to
play, many 18 year olds already possess their own credit cards, and others have
access to those of their parents. Furthermore, it is impossible to verify a
gambler’s age over the internet. Also,
internet gambling takes place anonymously, and in an isolated context. This makes it hard for to track, or for
authorities or other concerned persons to interfere. For these reasons, it is likely that even
more people will become addicted to online gambling. This is confirmed by a 2002 study, which
suggests that the percentage of problematic and compulsive gamblers is much
higher among internet gamblers than with other forms of gambling.[14]
The effects of
gambling on a person’s habits, character, and ultimate well-being are often
devastating. These effects are also
measurable, thus giving prima facie
credibility to Aristotle’s views on habits and their connection to the formation
of virtue. To see this, consider the
four phases of compulsive gambling, or “action gambling”, as it is called.[15] The first phase, the winning phase, is characterized by winning more often than
losing. It may start with one big
initial win. In this phase, the gambler
slowly risks larger and larger amounts of money, and gambles increasingly
often. He is beginning to get addicted
to the activity of gambling, and this decreases the amount of time he spends on
other activities (e.g. time spent with family or friends, or on working or
studying). The gambler next transitions
to the losing phase when he begins to
lose more than he wins. In this phase,
the gambler starts to need money, first, to cover losses, and second, to
continue gambling. He also needs to
cover his tracks, so that other individuals do not try to stop him as he loses
larger and larger amounts of money. This
is when he begins to lie. He
borrows money that he cannot pay back.
Because of the time spent gambling, the steady loss of money, and the
increased lying, the gambler’s family life and friendships begin to
deteriorate. In the next phase, the desperation phase, the gambler’s entire
life has become centered upon gambling, and depression may set in. The gambler has completely lost control over
his actions – gambling now controls him, rather than the other way around. The addiction has become too strong to
overcome. As people stop believing the gambler’s lies, he may then be forced to
obtain money illegally - perhaps telling himself that these are loans that he
intends to pay back. The gambler has
thus progressed to the stage of lying to
himself, in addition to lying to others.
In the last phase, called the hopeless
phase, the gambler gives up. If he
has committed crimes to obtain money, he may have gotten caught. He may even commit suicide.
In rare cases,
gamblers will decide to seek help, most often because friends or family have
intervened. It needs to be pointed out,
however, that the recovery rate for compulsive gamblers is slim, and in
addition, recovery usually takes years.[16] Many setbacks can be expected. Once a person has become a compulsive
gambler, it is extremely hard to return to being the person one once was.
[1] The facts for this article have been
exclusively gathered from Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, Harper Collins,
2001.
[2] Fast Food Nation, p.
51.
[3] Fast Food Nation, p.
52.
[4] Fast Food Nation, p.
54.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Fast Food Nation, p.
55/56.
[7] Fast Food Nation, p.
55.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Shaffer, H., Hall, M,
and Bilt, J. “Estimating the Prevalence
of Disordered Gambling Behavior in the
(This combines level 2 and level 3 gamblers –
level 3 are those with the most serious gambling problem.)
[11] Ibid.
[12]
http://www.800gambler.org/ArticleDetails.aspx?ContentID=4.
[13] Shaffer, H., Hall, M,
and Bilt, J.
[14] Ladd, George and
Petry, Nancy. “Disordered Gambling Among
University-Based Medical and Dental Patients: a Focus on Internet
Gambling.” Psychology of Addictive Behavior, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp.
76-79. Because this study was
relatively small scale, Ladd and Petry consider these findings preliminary.
[15]
http://www.azccg.org/aboutgambling/action_phases.html.
[16] The description of
these phases, as well as the actions associated with them, is obtained from http://www.azccg.org/aboutgambling/action_phases.html.