Lakisha Phillips
Ashford University
SOC 120 Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility
7/18/2015
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
Classical ethical theories and different ethical perspectives have a great application in the way affirmative action is viewed in the society. Other theories differ with these issue while others give a close relation to affirmative action and the way it has been taken by many organizations and institutions worldwide.
Affirmative action refers to a policy that involves institutions or organizations engaging in active efforts in order to improve the opportunities for a specific group of individuals that appear to be excluded from the society (Mosser, 2013). Some of these groups are excluded in terms of race, color, religion or also national origin and this action always targets to increase a number of individuals from a particular groups within institutions, businesses not forgetting other areas in the society where there has been historically low representation by these groups.
Affirmative action has been known to give the so called minorities an advantage the moment it comes to applying for employment opportunities, higher institution of learnings and other organizations in societies. It goes a step far by giving extra points when a test results where organizations are financially motivated to come out racially diverse. The effects of the outcome is always enables these candidates that appear less qualified to get a position, to be chosen and achieve minority quotas. This action was made a bill in order to prevent racism after a period where segregation was declared unconstitutional with the motive of employers to give opportunities to minorities but it has been said to be molded with a lot of issues.
Utilitarianism theory
For one to understand the way an ethical theory deals with affirmative action, the main important thing is understanding the perspective or theory first. Utilitarianism is one of the ethical theory which talks about focusing on expected outcome of a particular act instead of morality of that specific act itself. It can be summarized with the saying that “the end justifies the means” (Fluker, 2009). The other best way to describe this particular theory is that an individual choose an act which produces best outcome for high number of persons while giving room to least possible harm. Utilitarianism theory considers actions that give rise to the reverse of the feeling of happiness which can be termed as harm, however any harm that is created is able to be outweighed in case sufficient utility has been created in the result. For instance, when a life one individual needs to be taken for a purpose of saving two or more lives, utilitarianism theory suggests that it is the right action since there is creation of more utility compared to harm.
Applying this theory to affirmative action can take many ways to approach the subject. In this case I will focus on why utilitarianism can be against practicing affirmative action. We can take a look at “The Greatest Happiness Principle” to open up this dilemma. A close analysis of affirmative action, we can see that utilitarianism results to creation of more utility, for a society to be great in a case where minorities are denied special treatment compared to the majority (Lo, 2012). The practice of giving special treatment to minorities gives a creation of more suffering to more individuals that it really helps. The logic behind this is that there are more number of individuals in the majority population compared to minority.
Deontology theory
This theory claims that there exist universal laws that an individual is not supposed to violate at all cost. When compared with utilitarianism theory, this theory does not look at consequences of any action but instead the morality of that particular act itself. Deontologists asks whether an act is just or moral or whether it follows golden rule. Golden rule in this case states clearly that a person needs to treat another individual the same way he or she expects to be treated or handled. This theory focuses on obligating actions expected from a rational moral agent. Applying the theory of deontology to affirmative action can make a deontologist to think that it is unethical for any group of individuals to be given a special treatment or being preferred than other groups (Fluker, 2009). The reason behind this is that it violates the golden rule when discriminating against a majority and giving minority advantage over others in the society.
The deontologists cannot be concerned with the repercussions of eliminating activities of affirmative action, however their main point is that discrimination is immoral even if it goes ahead and benefit other individuals hence making it clear that deontologists are against discrimination act. This shows that the deontologists considers the institutions that practice affirmative action as being morally wrong. This shows that deontologists act against the affirmative action.
Ethical perspective of Relativism
Relativism is an ethical perspective which denotes that individuals are not supposed to be judged basing upon any individuals’ standards but should be judged upon the society. The relativists always believe that there is nothing like an absolute law. It is considered a good philosophy to people that believe in agreeing to disagree instead of casting a judgment. Considering how Relativist consider what organization take affirmative action to be, there exist many possibilities although there is a major stumbling block that is hard to overcome in applying this theory (Mosser, 2013) . The main idea is that relativism helps to prevent a society being judged meaning that if a certain society is undergoing racism and any minorities being discriminated, this ethical perspective makes one think that it is not proper judging that particular society. Putting that in mind, it appears impossible for any relativist to support any societal change. Individuals have argued that the goal of affirmative action is societal change and due to this logic, relativist will obviously be against it.
Work Cited
Mosser K. (2013). Ethics and social responsibility (2nd ed). San Diego, CA: Bridge point Education Inc.
Walter E. Fluker, (2009). Ethical Leadership: The Quest for Character, Civility and Community. Fortress Press. Pp. 201.
Bernard Lo, (2012). Resolving ethical Dilemmas. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Pp. 156-160.
Sheet1
| Problem 9-1 |
| What is the price of a Treasury STRIPS with a face value of $100 that matures in 5 years and has a yield to maturity of 9.0 percent? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the "$" sign in your response.) |
| Answer |
| Example |
| Price = $100 / (1 + .035/2)2(10) = |
Sheet2
| Problem 9-2 | |
| A Treasury STRIPS matures in 8 years and has a yield to maturity of 5.4 percent. Assume the par value is $100,000. | |
| a. | What is the price of the STRIPS? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the "$" sign in your response.) |
| Price | $ |
| b. | What is the quoted price? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 3 decimal places.) |
| Quoted price | |
| Example | |
| a. | |
| Price = $100,000 / (1 + .054/2)2(8.5) = | |
| b. | |
| Quoted price = $63,577.36 / $1,000 = |
Sheet3
| Problem 9-3 | |
| A Treasury STRIPS is quoted at 67.181 and has 7 years until maturity. What is the yield to maturity? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) | |
| YTM | % |
| Example | |
| YTM = 2 × [(100 / 81.265)1/(2 × 8) − 1] = .0261 or 2.61% |
Sheet4
| roblem 9-4 | |
| What is the yield to maturity on a Treasury STRIPS with 6 years to maturity and a quoted price of 81.247?(Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) | |
| YTM | % |
| Example | |
| YTM = 2 × [(100 / 65.492)1/(2 ×7) − 1] = .0614 or 6.14% |
Sheet5
| Problem 9-11 | |
| A Treasury bill with 136 days to maturity is quoted at 96.012. What is the bank discount yield, the bond equivalent yield, and the effective annual return? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answers as a percent rounded to 3 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) | |
| Discount yield | % |
| Bond equivalent yield | % |
| Effective annual return | % |
| Example | |
| 98.921 = 100 × [1 − (82/360) × DY); discount yield = .04737 or 4.737% | |
| bond equivalent yield = [365(.04737)]/[360 − (82)(.04737)] = .04855 or 4.855% | |
| EAR = [1 + .04855/(365/82)]365/82 − 1 = .04947 or 4.947% |
Sheet6
| Problem 9-12 | |
| A Treasury bill purchased in December 2015 has 123 days until maturity and a bank discount yield of 2.38 percent. Assume a $100 face value. | |
| a. | What is the price of the bill as a percentage of face value? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 3 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) |
| Price | % |
| b. | What is the bond equivalent yield? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) |
| Bond equivalent yield | % |
| Example | |
| 1.0593 = [1 + (APR)(90/365)]365/90 ; APR = bond equivalent yield = 5.802% | |
| discount yield = [360(.05802)]/[365 + (90)(.05802)] = 5.642% |
Sheet7
| Problem 9-13 | |
| The treasurer of a large corporation wants to invest $16 million in excess short-term cash in a particular money market investment. The prospectus quotes the instrument at a true yield of 6.64 percent; that is, the EAR for this investment is 6.64 percent. However, the treasurer wants to know the money market yield on this instrument to make it comparable to the T-bills and CDs she has already bought. If the term of the instrument is 80 days, what are the bond equivalent and discount yields on this investment? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answers as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) | |
| Bond equivalent yield | % |
| Discount yield | % |
| Example | |
| 1.0593 = [1 + (APR)(90/365)]365/90 ; APR = bond equivalent yield = 5.802% | |
| discount yield = [360(.05802)]/[365 + (90)(.05802)] = 5.642% |
Sheet8
| Consider the following spot interest rates for maturities of one, two, three, and four years. |
| r1 = 3.7% r2 = 4.2% r3 = 4.9% r4 = 5.7% |
| What are the following forward rates, where f1, k refers to a forward rate for the period beginning in one year and extending for k years? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answers as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) |
| Example |
| f1,1 = (1.0492/1.043)1/1 − 1 = 5.50% |
| f1,2 = (1.0563/1.043)1/2 − 1 = 6.26% |
| f1,3 = (1.0644/1.043)1/3 − 1 = 7.11% |
Sheet9
| Problem 9-23 | |
| Consider the following spot interest rates for maturities of one, two, three, and four years. | |
| r1 = 3.9% r2 = 4.5% r3 = 5.2% r4 = 6.0% | |
| Assuming a constant real interest rate of 2 percent, what are the approximate expected inflation rates for the next four years? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answers as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) | |
| I1 | % |
| I2 | % |
| I3 | % |
| I4 | % |
| EXAMPLE | |
| f2,1 = 1.0563/1.0492 − 1 = 7.01% | |
| f3,1 = 1.0644/1.0563 − 1 = 8.84% | |
| I1 = r1 − 2% = 4.30% − 2% = 2.30% | |
| I2 = f1,1 − 2% = 5.50% − 2% = 3.50% | |
| I3 = f2,1 − 2% = 7.01% − 2% = 5.01% | |
| I4 = f3,1 – 2% = 8.84% – 2% = 6.84% |
Sheet10
| Problem 9-24 | |
| A Treasury bill that settles on May 18, 2012, pays $100,000 on August 21, 2012. Assuming a discount rate of 3.48 percent, what is the price and bond equivalent yield? Use Excel to answer this question. (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answers to 2 decimal places. Omit the "$" & "%" signs in your response.) | |
| Price | $ |
| Bond equivalent yield | % |
Sheet11
| Aloha Inc. has 8 percent coupon bonds on the market that have 11 years left to maturity. If the YTM on these bonds is 10.22 percent, what is the current bond price? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the "$" sign in your response.) | |
| Price | $ |
Sheet12
| Problem 10-2 | |
| Rolling Company bonds have a coupon rate of 4.80 percent, 18 years to maturity, and a current price of $1,126. What is the YTM? The current yield? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answers as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) | |
| YTM | % |
| Current yield | % |
Sheet13
| bond has a coupon rate of 9.2 percent and 6 years until maturity. If the yield to maturity is 8.5 percent, what is the price of the bond? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the "$" sign in your response.) | |
| Price of the bond | $ |
Sheet14
| Problem 10-5 | |
| A bond sells for $941.15 and has a coupon rate of 7.80 percent. If the bond has 21 years until maturity, what is the yield to maturity of the bond? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) | |
| Yield to maturity | % |
Sheet15
| Problem 10-11 | |
| Ghost Rider Corporation has bonds on the market with 12 years to maturity, a YTM of 7.1 percent, and a current price of $932. What must the coupon rate be on the company’s bonds? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places. Omit the "%" sign in your response.) | |
| Coupon rate | % |
Sheet16
| LKD Co. has 12 percent coupon bonds with a YTM of 8.8 percent. The current yield on these bonds is 9.1 percent. How many years do these bonds have left until they mature? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to 2 decimal places.) | |
| Bonds mature | years |
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