Home » Entries posted by Jonathan Akin
conscription \ national service \ the draft
Self Before Country
The dangerous moral premise underlying the call for national service The recent debate on government budget cuts has resurfaced discussion on an enduring subject: national service. In a prominent example in Newsweek magazine, General Stanley McChrystal presents his vision of the role national service should take in American culture. He writes: We have let the [...]
charity \ giving \ Haiti \ Japan \ tsunami
Giving and Gaining: Thoughts on Charity in Light of Japan’s Disaster
From being asked to spare some change, to major disasters like the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we often face the question: should we give to charity? If so, to whom and how much? For many, the answer to the first is treated as self-evident: of course we should give. As to whom we should [...]
Campus Media Response: Why it’s Wrong to Make the Net “Neutral”
With the House of Representatives voting to repeal the FCC’s net neutrality controls along with the recently announced merger of AT&T with T-Mobile, the debate over the legal and moral status of the internet continues. There is no doubt that the internet is of enormous value to us all. The internet brings movies before our [...]
file sharing \ intellectual property
Campus Media Response: Choose High Ground, Not Middle Ground
File sharing remains a confusing and controversial issue on college campuses. As the practice becomes increasingly common, many college students and administrators are seeking clarification on the legal and ethical status of sharing copyrighted material. A student may be well aware that selling copied music to his friends is illegal, yet he is often asked [...]
financial crisis \ financial industry \ Wall Street
Campus Media Response: Traders, not Traitors
Writing for The Harvard Crimson, Ms. Sandra Korn points to an interesting phenomenon. A large proportion of Harvard’s recent graduates have chosen to pursue careers in finance such as investment banking. This is no doubt due partly to the impressive salaries that such careers often provide. The author proceeds to scold these graduates for disregarding [...]
