Unit 3

Taxation:

How should governments spend taxes in the time of COVID 19 virus?

Overview

At the end of this Unit, students are expected to demonstrate the following:

To debate the ethical challenges of taxation to a globalizing world

To promote the concept of justice and responsibility in a pluralistic society

Contrast and Compare the different beliefs and values of the classical to the contemporary period of taxation

Diagnostics:

Learning Checkpoint

Short essay: Answer the situations within 30 minutes in class.Be able to apply your previous knowledge about ethical theories to defend your moral code.

If you are a public official, will you pursue your own desire or do you care about the greater good, if you are not caught for malfeasance or misfeasance?

Your company has proposed a project for a toll road.As a transportation engineer, you learned about the negative impact of this project e.g. pollution and financial impact against the residents of the area you have conducted in your feasibility study.Should you, as an engineer, say nothing and continue with the study?

John Paul argues that a globalized economy needs safeguards for the common good.There is no individual country but international agencies that must be representative of the collective interests of the family of nations.Those who are most burdened and desperate must be the primary consideration in the weighing of decisions and consequences i.e. in the deliberation of national budget.In this vein, an interdisciplinary approach is important in a constantly changing social economic and political context.

Dialogue with different disciplines opens a broader horizon, upholds the person who is acknowledged and loved in the fullness of one's dignity.The social responsibility entails that when politics is not restrained by ethical and juridical considerations, it becomes an arena of destruction of the dignity of the persons and common good (Astorga, 2014).Authentic democracy means accountability of the leaders.While authentic peace, infused by faith, is the removal of the causes of war and genuine reconciliation.

In the economic side, the abuse of capitalism e.g. tax evasion or corruption, result to injustice and exploitation.This means the limits of capitalism and the call for solidarity for those who have the least access to common goods.For instance, the church seeks to give answers regarding the changing situations of the world, under the inspiration of the gospel.It sees a need for greater justice for the poor both in the national and international levels. Further, it questions the model of growth of the rich in its urgent call for justice.

Through dialogue, there is a greater sharing in responsibility, and decision making against economic domination and social, cultural and political abuses/violence.This means learning to live more as a member of community.Contrary to our view of freedom, freedom does not simply mean autonomy but is to be realized in living in solidarity with others (Astorga, 2014).

Pope John Paul II speaks of the evolution of church's social teaching as the demand of social justice is applied in different contexts, particularly in paying taxes.The church teaches the fundamental dignity of the human person as the foundation of political and economic institutions.It is everyone's responsibility to discern on communal level, not on individualistic perspectives.For religious thinkers such as Aquinas (Astorga, 2014), faith, hope and charity are directed to supernatural end.

For deontological ethics, moral actions are not contingent (a posteriori) but based on reason (a priori).For only human beings can act from principles based not on inclinations but on what is universally applicable to all other persons.Our motives of vanity or self-interest, for Kant, have no moral worth, but are on a level of inclinations.Because of our noumenal existence, we are not passive pawns of natural forces. We are able to regulate our behavior in accordance with our own law, the law that our reason constructs for itself, the moral law. According to Kant, we demonstrate our freedom when we act in accordance with this moral law.

Unit 3

Exercise 1.0

Group Analysis and Simulation

1. In groups, discuss: Organizations exemplify patterns of virtues and vices as practiced by management, employees and their corporate vision and mission.How can leaders i.e. of civic organizations build trust among their employees in terms of commitment, competence, intentions, policy to tax morale?

2.How can parents and school increase the awareness of sense of belonging of the young in the community, e.g. school, neighborhood and extended family in terms of paying tax?

3. How do you think the government should spend tax?Should the government support more funding to sports and music?

1. What kind of character faults might tempt a person in a situation that he or she commits tax crime?Choose the best answer and explain.

Moral indifference

Negligence

Intentional knowing or wrongdoing

Professional incompetence

Bias or lack of objectivity

Lack of effort

Conclusion:

All of these instances show that as society becomes more global, several changes occur.Social and technological systems expand, connections become more complex, change spreads more rapidly and effects are experienced at greater distance.These changes converged in the Information Age.Our ability to construct complex, rapidly changing global systems of production and consumption has outdistanced our ability to monitor, comprehend and predict, yet alone control their behavior.Because of the imbalance between construction of systems and their control, we are beset with problems without precedent in human experience (Ramos, 2003).

The aim is to new society that would place us in harmony with natural, human and social environment, instead of laying them waste for the sake of power and profit.Religion, at the present, remains a moral challenge to our creativity (i.e. political and social).We now turn to the other aspect of the self:community oriented.Proponents of this ethics argue that though each individual pursue self-realization, there is the importance of caring relationships and communities in understanding and defining the "self" to be fulfilled.

Simplicity, comprehensibility, comprehensiveness and consistency within our worldview are crucial in everyday life.In our everyday attempts to understand the world, the tendency is to look for answers underlying the observable phenomenon.As a conclusion, because of various challenges that we live in, we should always ask questions about how our moral code affects religious issues concerning ourselves, relationship with others, to our environment, and with Supreme Being.

1. How do you understand the meaning of "dialogue?"

1. How does paying tax relate to social responsibility and fullness of life?

Support your arguments using deontological, utilitarian or Christian ethics.