Humanities Homework Help

After watching the film, Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition (link attached) (Links to an external site.), select one instance in the video where a public official was involved in an ethically questionable case.

Explain the situation and how the public official was involved. (up to 2 points)

Did the public official make an ethical decision? Explain your response. (up to 3 points)

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1. At almost the end, the video talks about the oil-polluted wastewater that Koch Factory released to ditches in the Penn Road neighborhood. This wastewater makes people in this area have cancer, and some of them even pass away. The EPA fined them, but the problem still goes on because the water pollution that the Kock factory released is like a time bomb to people’s health.
2. I don’t think they make an ethical decision. Dr. Jarell says in the video, “They know they can get away with it. They will just wait and be fined if they get caught. Which in most cases they won’t ever be caught because the EPA is understaffed and underfunded”. This makes me think that the EPA fined the Koch company to make people think that they don’t ignore this case, but they can do more to solve this problem.

Reply to: 

1. The Koch Brothers Exposed was a series that portrayed the negative impact of the brothers on American life. Their wealth and political influence have been widely criticized. The Koch brothers have been alleged to use their money to gain political power to sway governmental actions in their favor. Citizens united was a perfect example of this. Supreme Court Justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas have met with the Koch brothers in sponsored settings where they have exchanged ‘behind-the scenes’ information. “They use the law they helped to write to help to spend millions more to buy the public policies they want”.

2. The public officials in this case definitely did not make an ethical decision. They should not be meeting in any circumstance where their opinion would be swayed or influenced in any way. Supreme Court justices are supposed to represent the better half of society and ensure equality and fairness are upheld, but these Justices did not do that, and for that, they were ethically in the wrong.