Material Covered:
- Module 1-3, especially Module 3
Instructions:
- Respond to the question(s) below. Your response to each question should fully answer the question asked.
- Your submission should in total be approximately 1,000-1,200 words (i.e., 3 pages of a normally formatted paper that is double spaced with 12 point font)
Paper Topic: Price Gouging
The recent Palisades and Altadena fires destroyed more than 11,500 homes. So tens of thousands of Angelenos are in need of housing. Some of the most well off will buy new houses, but many people will probably rent.
Even before the fires were out, people were reporting landlords engaging in price gouging ("Signs of rent gouging rise across region in fires’ wake, bringing calls for enforcement"). California has price-gouging rules that mean landlords cannot charge more than 10% above what they were charging or advertising before January 7th. But critics quickly argued, like Zwolinski, that laws against price gouging are problematic ("Some price-gouging rules could be keeping high-end homes off L.A.’s rental market"). Our governments, Gavin Newsom, was convinced enough by these considerations to lift the anti-gouging rules for large homes (4 bedrooms or larger) in some high-end zip codes like Bel Air, Beverly Hills, and Brentwood ("Gov. Newsom lifts price caps for new rental homes in wealthy L.A. neighborhoods"). But he, notably, did not lift the price caps for all homes.
Imagine for the purposes of this paper that the state of California and the county and city of Los Angeles have no anti-gouging laws. So you know raising prices will be legal. The issue at hand is thus purely a moral question.
Answer the following questions in your paper:
- According to Matt Zwolinski is it morally acceptable for LA landlords to price gouge? Explain his argument(s) for that position.
- Note: section 4 of Zwolinski's paper is most relevant to this question. This is NOT asking you about the moral status of anti-gouging laws (which is his focus in §3), or about the moral character of price gougers which is his focus in §5).
- What's your own position about whether it is morally right for LA landlords to price gouge? Do you agree or disagree with Zwolinski's view? Why or why not? Focus on the moral reasons that support your position (whether in agreement or disagreement with Zwolinski)
Formatting
- Do not include your name at the top of the paper, or in the name of the file you upload.
- So the first line of your paper should be the first sentence of your intro paragraph.
- This will allow me to grade your paper anonymously.
- 12pt Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with no additional space between paragraphs, and 1-inch margins.
- You do not need an introduction. You can start your paper by beginning your answer to the first question.
- Include a list of References/Works Cited at the end of your paper. This list will not count toward your page/word count.
- You use the reference style of your choice (e.g., MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style)
- This is not a research paper. Only use assigned texts and videos, unless you get explicit permission from the instructor.
Sources, Citations and Quotations
- This is not a research paper. Only use assigned texts and videos, unless you get explicit permission from the instructor.
- Include a list of References/Works Cited at the end of your paper. You use the reference style of your choice (e.g., MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style)
- If you cite original material posted to Canvas (e.g., handouts, slides, lectures), in your works cited list include the author's name, the name of the page on Canvas, the date it was posted, and a URL to that page.
- Throughout your paper must acknowledge the source of all ideas you use which are not your own, whether you directly quote or paraphrase another source. Do so by providing a parenthetical citation containing the author name and page number of the cited material.
- These are websites explaining how to format parenthetical citations in MLA format and APA format
- Here are some examples:
- Quotation:
- Author named in sentence:
- Angela Potochnik (2020) writes that one of the one of biology's "fundamental aims is to generate understanding of the living world around--and within--us" (p. 22).
- Author not named in sentence:
- One of the one of biology's "fundamental aims is to generate understanding of theliving world around--and within--us" (Potochnik, 2020, p. 22).
- Author named in sentence:
- Paraphrase/Summary:
- Author named in sentence:
- Angela Potochnik (2020) explains that one of the most important things biology tries to do is to help us understand living things that are external to us and inside us (p. 22).
- Author not named in sentence:
- One of the most important things biology tries to do is to help us understand living things that are external to us and inside us (Potochnik, 2020, p. 22).
- Author named in sentence:
- Quotation:
- Remember as a general rule that quotations should reserved for cases where the author says something in words that you cannot explain yourself. Either because there is technical language, or they have put the point in a particularly distinctive way and you are trying to draw attention to the way they say something and not just what they say.