The Situation: Imagine a situation where a villain (complete with twisting the handlebar mustache and laughing –Bwah-ha-ha) has set a large trolley rolling down the track from the top of a steep hill. Halfway down the hill you are at a switch that has the ability to change the direction of the trolley onto a second track. If the trolley is left on its current path, it will roll down the hill and kill 5 people who are innocently tied to the tracks. These people will not be able to untie themselves and can never get out of the way in time (oh-no!). However, if you take action and switch the trolley onto the alternative track, the five people will be saved, yet the trolley will run down a single person who has been tied to other track.

Directions:
Describe the ethical reasoning behind your argument for either switching the trolley to a new track or letting it pass by, killing all 5 people tied to the track.

To do this you must choose one of the Moral Theories regarding ethics from our text and this week’s lecture to guide your choice:
Utilitarianism
Deontology
Virtue Ethics

the benefits of raising bc’s minimum wage to $15 through a

series of pre-announced staged increases far outweigh the likely

costs. claims that such an increase will lead to massive job losses

in low-wage sectors of the economy are not credible.

• an increase to $15 would result in some job losses. however,

the likely impact is less than a 1 per cent reduction in the overall

provincial employment rate, and a 7.6 per cent reduction in the

employment rate for those currently making between $10.25

and $15 per hour.

• the large job loss impacts predicted by some opponents of

minimum wages misrepresent the existing economic research. in

reading and using that research, it is important to recognize that

estimates showing job loss effects of minimum wage increases

apply only to teenagers. estimated effects for young adult and

adult workers range from insignificant to non-existent.

• focusing on teenage workers plays up an inaccurate stereotype

about who earns very low wages in bc and leads to exaggerated

claims about job losses. only 26 per cent of those currently making

between $10.25 and $12 are teenagers, and only 5 per cent

of those making between $12 and $15 are teenagers.