Ethics Updates

 



Ethics Case Study Detail


Case # 24:

Government Subsidies?

Category: Government ethics

Foster Friess, a wealthy manager of a multi billion dollar mutual fund loves music, but strongly believes that government agencies should not subsidize the arts. “Why should the single mother who makes $6 an hour as a clerk be subsidizing ... my seats at the symphony through the local, state, and federal taxes taken out of her paycheck”, asks Mr. Friess. Recently Mr. Friess offered a donation of $40,000 to the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which has an annual budget of $1.2 million, on the condition that the Festival not accept a grant of $10,950 from the National Endowment for the Arts, an agency of the federal government.

Assume you are on the Board of Directors of the Grand Teton Music Festival. Do you vote to accept or reject Mr. Friess’s offer? If so, why? If not, why not?

Notes:

Fourth Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, APPE, 2/26/98




Author Information

Name:  Robert F. Ladenson

E-mail:  ladenson@iit.edu

Homepage:  http://www.iit.edu/departments/humanities/

Institution:  Department of Philosophy Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and Faculty Associate, Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (IIT)

Web site: http://ethics.iit.edu/

Copyright: 1998