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ethical dilemma

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Prof David West

ethical dilemma

Biden's COVID relief bill includes $400/week unemployment benefits until September.

Normally, if you voluntarily quit a job, you are not eligible for unemployment benefits. However, a person can qualify for these benefits if they quit because they "fear' contracting COVID at their job.

I know that my job has an enhanced risk for contracting COVID.

So should I quit and earn 400/wk for the next six months — tax free.

Or continue earning 300/week that is taxed.

No one but myself would ever know if I "feared" contracting COVID at that job

davew

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jon zingale

Re: ethical dilemma

Please take it, you are (IMO) more beneficial to us all when you have time to
think and to contribute how you see fit. Of course, I also think that the
world will be a very different place in 6 months, vaccine or not.

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Marcus G. Daniels

Re: ethical dilemma

Umm $300 or $400 a week? Who can live on either?

> On Feb 4, 2021, at 7:54 PM, jon zingale <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Please take it, you are (IMO) more beneficial to us all when you have time to
> think and to contribute how you see fit. Of course, I also think that the
> world will be a very different place in 6 months, vaccine or not.
>
>
>
> --
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doug carmichael

Fwd: ethical dilemma

I think it is on top of unemployment.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma
Date: February 4, 2021 at 9:15:25 PM PST
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Reply-To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>

Umm $300 or $400 a week? Who can live on either?

On Feb 4, 2021, at 7:54 PM, jon zingale <[hidden email]> wrote:

Please take it, you are (IMO) more beneficial to us all when you have time to
think and to contribute how you see fit. Of course, I also think that the
world will be a very different place in 6 months, vaccine or not.

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Marcus G. Daniels

Re: Fwd: ethical dilemma

I don’t understand Dave’s point. There is a hypothetical person living on an impossible $300/wk that quits to get 0+$400/wk? I should care about this loss of “productivity”?

On Feb 4, 2021, at 9:18 PM, Douglass Carmichael <[hidden email]> wrote:

I think it is on top of unemployment.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]>

Subject: Re: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma

Date: February 4, 2021 at 9:15:25 PM PST

To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>

Reply-To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>

Umm $300 or $400 a week? Who can live on either?

On Feb 4, 2021, at 7:54 PM, jon zingale <[hidden email]> wrote:

Please take it, you are (IMO) more beneficial to us all when you have time to
think and to contribute how you see fit. Of course, I also think that the
world will be a very different place in 6 months, vaccine or not.

--
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gepr

Re: Fwd: ethical dilemma

In reply to this post by doug carmichael

Yeah, it seems to be on top of whatever other unemployment you would receive. It's not clear to me how FUTA and SUTA interact. But we've paid for unemployment insurance in different amounts, and different ways in each state we've done business. Oregon's was the most expensive, even above California, if I recall correctly.

As to Dave's question: I think it's important to remember this is an insurance pool. I treat it much the same as health insurance. My principle through my career was to pay into the pool whenever I can and only draw from it if I had to. And that includes voluntary contributions. E.g. here in WA, as an owner/officer, I can opt out if I don't want to collect later on. But we intend to pay in anyway, even though, being the boss, I don't expect to lay myself off. This is, for me, the right ethical choice.

But back in OR, I was struggling to employ more dorks than I could afford. So I'd employ them when I could, then lay them off when I had no money to spare, so they could collect unemployment (and continue their projects, often with equipment my company owned). I sincerely wanted to *fire* one guy [⛧], but chose to lay him off so he could collect. We'd lost his client anyway. So the layoff was justified.

In the end, Jon and Marcus are on the right track. If you think your time is better spent being funded to do something else, then take the unemployment, actually do the something else, and I'd consider it an investment in *our* infrastructure. Or sit on the couch for 8 months eating bon-bons. The actuarial tables cover for that, too. >8^D

[⛧] He actually *threw* the client's equipment around their lab in a fit of rage. I comped the work he'd done before that. So we lost quite a bit of money for that little tantrum. [sigh]

On 2/4/21 9:18 PM, Douglass Carmichael wrote:

> I think it is on top of unemployment.
>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> *From: *Marcus Daniels <[hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>>
>> *Subject: **Re: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma*
>> *Date: *February 4, 2021 at 9:15:25 PM PST
>> *To: *The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>>
>> *Reply-To: *The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>>
>>
>> Umm $300 or $400 a week? Who can live on either?
>>
>>> On Feb 4, 2021, at 7:54 PM, jon zingale <[hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Please take it, you are (IMO) more beneficial to us all when you have time to
>>> think and to contribute how you see fit. Of course, I also think that the
>>> world will be a very different place in 6 months, vaccine or not.
>>>

uǝʃƃ ⊥ glen

thompnickson2

Re: ethical dilemma

In reply to this post by Prof David West

Dave,

Wouldn’t you be lonely?

Nick Thompson

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2021 9:15 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma

Biden's COVID relief bill includes $400/week unemployment benefits until September.

I know that my job has an enhanced risk for contracting COVID.

So should I quit and earn 400/wk for the next six months — tax free.

Or continue earning 300/week that is taxed.

No one but myself would ever know if I "feared" contracting COVID at that job

davew

thompnickson2

Re: Fwd: ethical dilemma

In reply to this post by gepr

Glen,

I had never thought of you as a boss, before, with the ethical problems of bossing. I thought of you more as a lone wolf. Are you still a boss?

[signed]

Master Thread Bender

Nick Thompson
[hidden email]
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of u?l? ???
Sent: Friday, February 5, 2021 9:14 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Fwd: ethical dilemma

Yeah, it seems to be on top of whatever other unemployment you would receive. It's not clear to me how FUTA and SUTA interact. But we've paid for unemployment insurance in different amounts, and different ways in each state we've done business. Oregon's was the most expensive, even above California, if I recall correctly.

As to Dave's question: I think it's important to remember this is an insurance pool. I treat it much the same as health insurance. My principle through my career was to pay into the pool whenever I can and only draw from it if I had to. And that includes voluntary contributions. E.g. here in WA, as an owner/officer, I can opt out if I don't want to collect later on. But we intend to pay in anyway, even though, being the boss, I don't expect to lay myself off. This is, for me, the right ethical choice.

But back in OR, I was struggling to employ more dorks than I could afford. So I'd employ them when I could, then lay them off when I had no money to spare, so they could collect unemployment (and continue their projects, often with equipment my company owned). I sincerely wanted to *fire* one guy [⛧], but chose to lay him off so he could collect. We'd lost his client anyway. So the layoff was justified.

In the end, Jon and Marcus are on the right track. If you think your time is better spent being funded to do something else, then take the unemployment, actually do the something else, and I'd consider it an investment in *our* infrastructure. Or sit on the couch for 8 months eating bon-bons. The actuarial tables cover for that, too. >8^D

[⛧] He actually *threw* the client's equipment around their lab in a fit of rage. I comped the work he'd done before that. So we lost quite a bit of money for that little tantrum. [sigh]

On 2/4/21 9:18 PM, Douglass Carmichael wrote:

> I think it is on top of unemployment.
>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> *From: *Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]
>> <mailto:[hidden email]>>
>> *Subject: **Re: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma*
>> *Date: *February 4, 2021 at 9:15:25 PM PST
>> *To: *The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
>> <[hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>>
>> *Reply-To: *The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
>> <[hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>>
>>
>> Umm $300 or $400 a week? Who can live on either?
>>
>>> On Feb 4, 2021, at 7:54 PM, jon zingale <[hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Please take it, you are (IMO) more beneficial to us all when you
>>> have time to think and to contribute how you see fit. Of course, I
>>> also think that the world will be a very different place in 6 months, vaccine or not.
>>>

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gepr

Re: Fwd: ethical dilemma

Off and on. And you're right. I'm a terrible boss who offers absolutely zero direction and mission to my employees. I even made one employee cry one time. Admittedly, her pet rabbit had just died and our higher boss was upset with her report from the Java conference. I did my best. But it was obviously inadequate. Another one back in Santa Fe flat out called me an @sshole and stormed off. One consultant hated me so much he cut his visit short and flew home to AZ that day. [sigh] I'm a human catastrophe. But for some reason, most projects I'm on do well enough to (barely) justify my presence.

On 2/5/21 8:12 AM, [hidden email] wrote:
> I had never thought of you as a boss, before, with the ethical problems of bossing. I thought of you more as a lone wolf. Are you still a boss?

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uǝʃƃ ⊥ glen

Prof David West

Re: ethical dilemma

In reply to this post by thompnickson2

One should be precise when asking a question, and I find I was not.

The first ethical dilemma is that I would have to knowingly lie about my "fear" of contracting COVID at work. I know I am at greater risk but that has not and likely will not translate into "fear."

The second ethical dilemma arises from the fact that I would be, almost, literally irreplaceable — unemployment benefits are a huge disincentive to workiong. So those I left behind will suffer some serious negative impacts, assuming my hours and increasing their own exposure to disease. Ethics of loyalty, friendship, compassion for others????

A third issue: if I inspired even one other colleague to follow my example, the store likely would have to close with negative impacts on the community as well as the other employees.

One might make a case that the only ethical thing for me to do would be to leave and take as many as my colleagues with me in hopes that the Canadian company that owns the story would raise their wages scale to $15+ an hour. This would harm nothing except their corporate profits and would benefit both the community and all the employees. Unlikely to happen, but the ethical argument could be made.

PS Nick: yes, I would be lonely, but that is a pandemic condition during the pandemic.

PPS poets: Richard Gabriel, Ph.D. Computer Science, MFA Poetry, creator of a poetry writing AI — told me that Haiku cannot be written in English, or any non-ideographic language, because meter provides only syntax, and misses the semantic point.

davew

On Fri, Feb 5, 2021, at 9:03 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

Dave,

Wouldn’t you be lonely?

N

Nick Thompson
[hidden email]
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2021 9:15 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma

Biden's COVID relief bill includes $400/week unemployment benefits until September.

Normally, if you voluntarily quit a job, you are not eligible for unemployment benefits. However, a person can qualify for these benefits if they quit because they "fear' contracting COVID at their job.

I know that my job has an enhanced risk for contracting COVID.

So should I quit and earn 400/wk for the next six months — tax free.

Or continue earning 300/week that is taxed.

No one but myself would ever know if I "feared" contracting COVID at that job

davew
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Marcus G. Daniels

Re: ethical dilemma

Unemployment benefits are only a disincentive to work if the work available sucks. If one does harm to colleagues or employer, and they represent a valuable relationship, then it is just a bad call. If it isn’t a valuable relationship, then take the time and regroup to find a safe place to work. A few hundred dollars a week is not a huge incentive or disincentive in the context of damaging a professional reputation, but if the job has a good chance of risking death, then it is different.

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Friday, February 5, 2021 9:10 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma

One should be precise when asking a question, and I find I was not.

A third issue: if I inspired even one other colleague to follow my example, the store likely would have to close with negative impacts on the community as well as the other employees.

PS Nick: yes, I would be lonely, but that is a pandemic condition during the pandemic.

davew

On Fri, Feb 5, 2021, at 9:03 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

Dave,

Wouldn’t you be lonely?

N

Nick Thompson

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Prof David West

Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2021 9:15 PM

To: [hidden email]

Subject: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma

Biden's COVID relief bill includes $400/week unemployment benefits until September.

Normally, if you voluntarily quit a job, you are not eligible for unemployment benefits. However, a person can qualify for these benefits if they quit because they "fear' contracting COVID at their job.

I know that my job has an enhanced risk for contracting COVID.

So should I quit and earn 400/wk for the next six months — tax free.

Or continue earning 300/week that is taxed.

No one but myself would ever know if I "feared" contracting COVID at that job

davew

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gepr

Re: ethical dilemma

Right. And more evidence against Dave's thesis is that many places have unemployment programs where rather than take "free" money and sit on the couch, you can use that money to fund a start-up or participate in charitable work. It's not a disincentive to work. It's a safety net and productivity redistribution device.

On 2/5/21 9:23 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> Unemployment benefits are only a disincentive to work if the work available sucks. If one does harm to colleagues or employer, and they represent a valuable relationship, then it is just a bad call. If it isn’t a valuable relationship, then take the time and regroup to find a safe place to work. A few hundred dollars a week is not a huge incentive or disincentive in the context of damaging a professional reputation, but if the job has a good chance of risking death, then it is different.

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jon zingale

Re: ethical dilemma

In reply to this post by Prof David West

Ah. Ok, I will try again. I take it that when you ask whether this or that is
*ethical*, you are asking not only for a result but also for a framework for
interpreting that ethical result. As I suspect you would guess about me, I
am uncertain that there is almost ever a *natural* choice of ethical
framework, and so I am often left to rely on aesthetic choices when
interpreting the ethics of a given situation[⊤]. Any ethics that I am
willing to accept must not strictly do for others. There is the
responsibility to honor one's self, compassion for one's self as well as
others. Any ethics I can accept will inevitably present arbitrary choices
whose resolution comes free of penalty, regardless.

Aesthetically, I side with *you having the liberty* to pitch in with your
co-workers if you wish. It would be novel if you can come to an arrangement
with your employer where you are laid off, thus collecting a more reasonable
wage, all the while being allowed to continue your work[$]. It may also be
the case, that there are better ways to support your co-workers once you at
liberty to behave differently.

Similar to the idea that one's vote doesn't matter, I tend to think that
one's personal drain on the social infrastructure doesn't matter. I have
friends that rely on food stamps to fund their artistic lives, and I cannot
see blame for this. We are a civilization with tremendous abundance, and we
need art, we need individuals following spiritual pursuits of all kinds. We
need individuals who abstain. Additionally, I tend to reject the protestant
compulsion to *make hay for hay's sake*, Earth has too many paperclips.

To *knowingly lie* might be the only agency you have to do an ethical thing.
While for you it is a lie, for the API you are interfacing with it is simply
a POST or a GET.

Invoice: 2¢

[⊤] I experience a similar aporia when asked about the *truth* of anything
but the most tautological of propositions (true in all possible
non-degenerate logics, say).

[$] I feel something of an ethical responsibility to shrink the economic gap
across our culture.

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gepr

Re: ethical dilemma

Or 5.3e-7 BTC.

On 2/5/21 10:18 AM, jon zingale wrote:
> Invoice: 2¢

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Steve Smith

Re: ethical dilemma

In reply to this post by Prof David West

Dave -

I'm glad you elaborated. My trivial "shunt" answers to stop me from turning your "dilemma" into a "multilemma" of arbitrarily large proportions might be:

"it is only a moral dilemma for someone who is immoral"

another simple showstopper might be:

"if you judge anyone else who might consider doing this immoral then absolutely, don't do it!"

I don't know when it happened for me, but one day I woke up and realized that I'd spent the last XX% of my life eating the words I'd uttered for the first 100-XX% of my life. A little later I realized I was still spitting words (judgements of others) that I'd have to eat "yet later", which (sometimes, and mildly) tempered those fresh round of judgements, if only minimally.

TL;DR - multilemmas all the way down from here, the shunt didn't help:

Your elaboration covers a significant fraction of my own taxonomy of moral/ethical questions that arise. I'd be interested if this group were able to build a rough taxonomy (albeit more likely a heterarchical web of moral/ethical implications than a simple taxonomy). Maybe in the spirit of Glymour or Pearl, there might even be some formalizable parallels between causual webs and ethical webs?

You hit the big ones for me.

knowingly lie... this might be slightly better for your own soul than to make up complex excuses to justify lying to yourself?
community obligation... if your workplace is a critical resource to your community and your refusing to work there contributes significantly to it's failure.
by example... You are probably not the only one weighing the options... so whether you lead, follow, or refuse might be of small consequence. You may consider yourself a thought/moral leader among the other workers... if so then yes, I get it.
confront the "poverty wage economy"... crashing the business, using the unemployment option to effectively stage a work stoppage, forcing a > $10/hr wage (based on $400/month rather than the $600=$15*40hrs) onto the parent company (with subsequent increased prices for their goods/services).

Other considerations I would insert might include.

what is the extended risk of your catching COVID with your age and underlying conditions, you are more likely to suffer badly and possibly burden a medical system in your region which either is or is not already being stressed. Maybe rural UT continues to maintain low rates of spread which refers us back to 1 above.
Is your holding the job (independent of COVID and extended unemployment benefits) a boon or bane to the community? Is it hard to find people willing/able to do this job? Would releasing the job allow someone else who also needs it but might not qualify for the unemployment you are considering, allow them to feed their family (albeit minimally)?
Do you have something better to contribute to the community? Is there something else you could be doing with the same time that is less COVID-risky? Handing off the minWage job to someone else who needs it and applying your skills/abilities to a $0 wage task might make more sense? You would even have $100 cash per week leftover to support a longer commute or extra expenses or direct donation to the cause you are supporting? Certainly more circulation of cash in the community (if you spend or contribute the difference).
Maybe this is the perfect time to complete your magnus opus... consider it an NEA or NSF grant to complete your "great american novel" or redefine "object oriented design" entirely?
If your workplace is a genuine community resource, perhaps you could take the unemployment and return under "yet more COVID-safe conditions" to enhance that workplace for the community and the other workers (I can't stretch myself enough to conjure a specific example, but there may well be one).
Maybe now is a good time for the community to take the bull by the horns and "buy out" the hard assets of the company and restart it as a proper cooperative? Does the larger Mormon community have good precedents for cooperatives, or is it either church or private enterprise? As an example, I submit the Grange (though they might sound like pinko-commie-f...s to some:

The Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, was founded in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture, as well as to promote the social and economic needs of farmers in the United States. The financial crisis of 1873, along with falling crop prices, increases in railroad fees to ship crops, and Congress’s reduction of paper money in favor of gold and silver devastated farmers’ livelihoods and caused a surge in Grange membership in the mid-1870s. Both at the state and national level, Grangers gave their support to reform minded groups such as the Greenback Party, the Populist Party, and, eventually, the Progressives.

I also wonder if part of the background to your question is whether it is moral/ethical to *offer* such a deal?

As an erstwhile libertarian I can cop the attitude that a free market sets the value of labor and any interference with that is fundamentally immoral.
As a budding socialist/communalist, I want to live in a world where people are encouraged to share and be generous and to build and respect a healthy and rich commons.
I do think a $10 "living wage" unemployment offered over the top of a $7.50 "minimum wage" for employment *is* a cart-before-horse problem... but given the vagaries of how bureaucracies and legislation works, it is not surprising and the "moral dilemmas" generated for people (including small, medium, and large business) are maybe helpful (like a Zen Koan) to shock the system into a more upright posture?

Mumble,

- Steve

On 2/5/21 10:09 AM, Prof David West wrote:

One should be precise when asking a question, and I find I was not.

The first ethical dilemma is that I would have to knowingly lie about my "fear" of contracting COVID at work. I know I am at greater risk but that has not and likely will not translate into "fear."

The second ethical dilemma arises from the fact that I would be, almost, literally irreplaceable — unemployment benefits are a huge disincentive to workiong. So those I left behind will suffer some serious negative impacts, assuming my hours and increasing their own exposure to disease. Ethics of loyalty, friendship, compassion for others????

A third issue: if I inspired even one other colleague to follow my example, the store likely would have to close with negative impacts on the community as well as the other employees.

One might make a case that the only ethical thing for me to do would be to leave and take as many as my colleagues with me in hopes that the Canadian company that owns the story would raise their wages scale to $15+ an hour. This would harm nothing except their corporate profits and would benefit both the community and all the employees. Unlikely to happen, but the ethical argument could be made.

PS Nick: yes, I would be lonely, but that is a pandemic condition during the pandemic.

PPS poets: Richard Gabriel, Ph.D. Computer Science, MFA Poetry, creator of a poetry writing AI — told me that Haiku cannot be written in English, or any non-ideographic language, because meter provides only syntax, and misses the semantic point.

davew

On Fri, Feb 5, 2021, at 9:03 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

Dave,

Wouldn’t you be lonely?

N

Nick Thompson

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

From: Friam [hidden email] On Behalf Of Prof David West

Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2021 9:15 PM

To: [hidden email]

Subject: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma

Biden's COVID relief bill includes $400/week unemployment benefits until September.

Normally, if you voluntarily quit a job, you are not eligible for unemployment benefits. However, a person can qualify for these benefits if they quit because they "fear' contracting COVID at their job.

I know that my job has an enhanced risk for contracting COVID.

So should I quit and earn 400/wk for the next six months — tax free.

Or continue earning 300/week that is taxed.

No one but myself would ever know if I "feared" contracting COVID at that job

davew

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Marcus G. Daniels

Re: ethical dilemma

Steve writes:

< The Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, was founded in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture, as well as to promote the social and economic needs of farmers in the United States. The financial crisis of 1873, along with falling crop prices, increases in railroad fees to ship crops, and Congress’s reduction of paper money in favor of gold and silver devastated farmers’ livelihoods and caused a surge in Grange membership in the mid-1870s. Both at the state and national level, Grangers gave their support to reform minded groups such as the Greenback Party, the Populist Party, and, eventually, the Progressives. >

And we suspected, to swap partners. Life is hard out in the country, you know.

Marcus

Steve Smith

Re: ethical dilemma

Official poster of The Grange

The two lower-left corner vignettes almost slipped by me: in particular the "fleece you all"

On 2/5/21 1:42 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:

Steve writes:

< The Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, was founded in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture, as well as to promote the social and economic needs of farmers in the United States. The financial crisis of 1873, along with falling crop prices, increases in railroad fees to ship crops, and Congress’s reduction of paper money in favor of gold and silver devastated farmers’ livelihoods and caused a surge in Grange membership in the mid-1870s. Both at the state and national level, Grangers gave their support to reform minded groups such as the Greenback Party, the Populist Party, and, eventually, the Progressives. >

And we suspected, to swap partners. Life is hard out in the country, you know.

Marcus
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thompnickson2

Re: ethical dilemma

In reply to this post by Steve Smith

Dave,

Maybe this is the perfect time to complete your magnus opus... consider it an NEA or NSF grant to complete your "great american novel" or redefine "object oriented design" entirely?

Boy, Howdy, do I agree with that.

Nick Thompson

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Steve Smith
Sent: Friday, February 5, 2021 2:06 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma

Dave -

I'm glad you elaborated. My trivial "shunt" answers to stop me from turning your "dilemma" into a "multilemma" of arbitrarily large proportions might be:

"it is only a moral dilemma for someone who is immoral"

another simple showstopper might be:

"if you judge anyone else who might consider doing this immoral then absolutely, don't do it!"

TL;DR - multilemmas all the way down from here, the shunt didn't help:

You hit the big ones for me.

knowingly lie... this might be slightly better for your own soul than to make up complex excuses to justify lying to yourself?
community obligation... if your workplace is a critical resource to your community and your refusing to work there contributes significantly to it's failure.
by example... You are probably not the only one weighing the options... so whether you lead, follow, or refuse might be of small consequence. You may consider yourself a thought/moral leader among the other workers... if so then yes, I get it.
confront the "poverty wage economy"... crashing the business, using the unemployment option to effectively stage a work stoppage, forcing a > $10/hr wage (based on $400/month rather than the $600=$15*40hrs) onto the parent company (with subsequent increased prices for their goods/services).

Other considerations I would insert might include.

what is the extended risk of your catching COVID with your age and underlying conditions, you are more likely to suffer badly and possibly burden a medical system in your region which either is or is not already being stressed. Maybe rural UT continues to maintain low rates of spread which refers us back to 1 above.
Is your holding the job (independent of COVID and extended unemployment benefits) a boon or bane to the community? Is it hard to find people willing/able to do this job? Would releasing the job allow someone else who also needs it but might not qualify for the unemployment you are considering, allow them to feed their family (albeit minimally)?
Do you have something better to contribute to the community? Is there something else you could be doing with the same time that is less COVID-risky? Handing off the minWage job to someone else who needs it and applying your skills/abilities to a $0 wage task might make more sense? You would even have $100 cash per week leftover to support a longer commute or extra expenses or direct donation to the cause you are supporting? Certainly more circulation of cash in the community (if you spend or contribute the difference).
Maybe this is the perfect time to complete your magnus opus... consider it an NEA or NSF grant to complete your "great american novel" or redefine "object oriented design" entirely?
If your workplace is a genuine community resource, perhaps you could take the unemployment and return under "yet more COVID-safe conditions" to enhance that workplace for the community and the other workers (I can't stretch myself enough to conjure a specific example, but there may well be one).
Maybe now is a good time for the community to take the bull by the horns and "buy out" the hard assets of the company and restart it as a proper cooperative? Does the larger Mormon community have good precedents for cooperatives, or is it either church or private enterprise? As an example, I submit the Grange (though they might sound like pinko-commie-f...s to some:

The Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, was founded in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture, as well as to promote the social and economic needs of farmers in the United States. The financial crisis of 1873, along with falling crop prices, increases in railroad fees to ship crops, and Congress’s reduction of paper money in favor of gold and silver devastated farmers’ livelihoods and caused a surge in Grange membership in the mid-1870s. Both at the state and national level, Grangers gave their support to reform minded groups such as the Greenback Party, the Populist Party, and, eventually, the Progressives.

I also wonder if part of the background to your question is whether it is moral/ethical to *offer* such a deal?

As an erstwhile libertarian I can cop the attitude that a free market sets the value of labor and any interference with that is fundamentally immoral.
As a budding socialist/communalist, I want to live in a world where people are encouraged to share and be generous and to build and respect a healthy and rich commons.
I do think a $10 "living wage" unemployment offered over the top of a $7.50 "minimum wage" for employment *is* a cart-before-horse problem... but given the vagaries of how bureaucracies and legislation works, it is not surprising and the "moral dilemmas" generated for people (including small, medium, and large business) are maybe helpful (like a Zen Koan) to shock the system into a more upright posture?

Mumble,

- Steve

On 2/5/21 10:09 AM, Prof David West wrote:

One should be precise when asking a question, and I find I was not.

The first ethical dilemma is that I would have to knowingly lie about my "fear" of contracting COVID at work. I know I am at greater risk but that has not and likely will not translate into "fear."

The second ethical dilemma arises from the fact that I would be, almost, literally irreplaceable — unemployment benefits are a huge disincentive to workiong. So those I left behind will suffer some serious negative impacts, assuming my hours and increasing their own exposure to disease. Ethics of loyalty, friendship, compassion for others????

A third issue: if I inspired even one other colleague to follow my example, the store likely would have to close with negative impacts on the community as well as the other employees.

One might make a case that the only ethical thing for me to do would be to leave and take as many as my colleagues with me in hopes that the Canadian company that owns the story would raise their wages scale to $15+ an hour. This would harm nothing except their corporate profits and would benefit both the community and all the employees. Unlikely to happen, but the ethical argument could be made.

PS Nick: yes, I would be lonely, but that is a pandemic condition during the pandemic.

PPS poets: Richard Gabriel, Ph.D. Computer Science, MFA Poetry, creator of a poetry writing AI — told me that Haiku cannot be written in English, or any non-ideographic language, because meter provides only syntax, and misses the semantic point.

davew

On Fri, Feb 5, 2021, at 9:03 AM, [hidden email] wrote:
Dave,

Wouldn’t you be lonely?

N

Nick Thompson
[hidden email]
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

From: Friam [hidden email] On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2021 9:15 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [FRIAM] ethical dilemma

Biden's COVID relief bill includes $400/week unemployment benefits until September.

Normally, if you voluntarily quit a job, you are not eligible for unemployment benefits. However, a person can qualify for these benefits if they quit because they "fear' contracting COVID at their job.

I know that my job has an enhanced risk for contracting COVID.

So should I quit and earn 400/wk for the next six months — tax free.

Or continue earning 300/week that is taxed.

No one but myself would ever know if I "feared" contracting COVID at that job

davew
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