Fiscal Responsibility paper

To keep myself focused, I'll occasionally post info about what I'm researching and writing. Today, I will be focused on editing a paper I have written on "Fiscal Responsibility and the 'Use It or Lose It' Rationale for Spending." I got some great feedback on the paper from Professor Alastair Norcross of UC Boulder, who commented on the paper at the Midsouth Philosophy Conference this spring. The audience at the paper was large, which was nice, and gave me great feedback as well.

The paper is basically about what happens when a fiscal leader finds himself or herself with more cash than was planned previously, such as when a non-profit gets the luncheon catering donated at the last minute. Now an organization has money beyond what it had originally planned to use, an experience I have encountered, and certain decisions bring with them moral criticism of irresponsibility when the "use it or lose it" rationale is brought up. In this paper, I set up some guidelines for deciding when the "use it or lose it" reasoning is unacceptable, acceptable, or morally better than not using the funds.

Fun stuff :)