Class #11: The Conservative View
Discussion Questions for Class, September 30, 2009
Reading: Hunter and Milofsky, Chapter Four, The Conservative View

These writing assignments are meant to help you think about the readings and to prepare you for class discussions. For that reason, when you write a response it is important that you give your opinions and that you relate your thoughts to the reading. Remember that these are exam questions and that they are graded as such. You ought to write them as though you are writing questions on a midterm or a final exam.

Respond to one of the following questions by writing a response on the class Discussion Board on Blackboard at least one hour before class on the date the question is listed. Put your name in the text of the question and give the question number as listed below. Without these I can't tell who wrote the question or what you are responding to. You then have until Midnight on the following Sunday of that week to revise your response if you wish to do so and to submit it for grading. To submit your responses, send them via email to milofsky@bucknell.edu.

Your final version of this question is due by midnight, Sunday, October 4.

11-1. Why does market failure lead to anomie, and how does it lead to the "ethnic mobility trap"?

11-2. The human capital conservative model is ambivalent about school dropouts while the queueing model sees dropping out as moral failure. Why do the two approaches differ?

11-3. Contrasted to centralized decision making, what advantages are provided by the nature of the market as a way of organizing services?

11-4. What problems concern conservatives about socioeconomic inequality?