Chapter 3: Justice and Economic Distribution

Capital

A means of production that has itself been produced: for the most part, although not entirely, buildings, plant, and equipment.

Worker participation

A partnership between laborer and capitalist, where the laborers themselves equally and collectively own the capital.

1. There should be no limitations at all upon the amount a person can leave to their spouse. 2. For children who are orphaned, and any other people who have been genuinely dependent upon the decedent, such as any who are mentally incompetent, or too elderly to have any significant earning power of their own. 3. For charitable organizations - ones created not for purposes of making a profit, but for charitable, religious, scientific, or educational purposes.

According to D. W. Haslett, his abolishment of inheritance proposed is to be subject to what 3 important exceptions?

1. The closer we come to equal opportunity for all, the more people there will be who, as a result of increased opportunity, will come to realize their productive potential. 2. The closer we come to equal opportunity for all, the more people there will be with an excellent opportunity to become something other than an ordinary worker, to become a professional or an entrepreneur of sorts.

According to D. W. Haslett, progress is realizing equal opportunity for all could bring with it progress in at least 2 other critical areas as well: productivity and income distribution. Explain how.

1. Distribution according to productivity. 2. Equal opportunity. 3. Freedom.

According to D. W. Haslett, what are the 3 ideals that underlie capitalism?

1. No family would fall below the poverty line, no matter what the contribution of its members to overall production...In a world of justice, no child suffers the disadvantage of growing up poor. 2. Most families would be within a 2:1 ratio of incomes. 3. Except for a small number of people, the maximum ratio of incomes would be 8:1. 4. A few incomes would rise above that 8:1 ratio.

According to John Isbister, a just distribution of family incomes would follow what 4 principles?

1. They justifications for pay differences sometimes overlap. 2. The discussion so far has taken no account of what is sometimes called "psychic income."

According to John Isbister, what are at least two reasons for reducing the maximum ratio between the top and the bottom of the labor force?

1. To persuade some people to undertake education, apprenticeships, and training programs so that they will enhance their skills. 2. Many people need the prospect of higher earnings, or the fear of lower earnings, as an incentive to work hard and efficiently. 3. Organizational hierarchies.

According to John Isbister, what are the 3 efficiently-related justifications for unequal wages?

Maximin rule

According to this rule, you should select the alternative under which the worst that could happen to you is better than the worst that could happen to you under any other alternative—that is, you should try to maximize the minimum that you will receive.

Capitalism

An economic system where (1) what to produce, and in what quantities, is determined essentially by supply and demand—that is, by people's "dollar votes"—rather than by central planning, and (2) capital goods are, for the most part, privately owned.

Wilt Chamberlin example

An example in which Nozick argues that other theories of economic justice inevitably fail to respect people's liberty.

Declining marginal utility of money

Successive additions to one's income produce, on average, less happiness or welfare than did earlier additions.

1. Fairness. 2. Equality. 3. Desert. 4. Rights.

Talk of justice or injustice typically focuses on at least one of what 4 related ideas?

Eminent domain

The ancient right of government to take property from an individual without consent for the common good—for example, to build a highway, an airport, a dam, or a hospital.

State of nature

The basis of natural rights philosophy; ______ is the condition of people living in a situation without man-made government, rules, or laws.

Difference principle

The distinctive core of Rawls's theory of justice, which states that inequalities are justified only if they work to the benefit of the least-advantaged group in society. By "least-advantaged," Rawls simply means those who are least well-off.

Basic structure

The fundamental social institutions and their arrangement into one scheme.

Working poor

Those who work full-time but do not earn enough to pull themselves and their families out of poverty.

Original position

John Rawls' name for a hypothetical condition in which rational and unbiased individuals select the principles of social justice that govern a well-ordered society.

Distributive justice

the proper distribution of social benefits and burdens (in particular, economic benefits and burdens).

Libertarianism

An ideology that cherishes individual liberty and insists on minimal government, promoting a free market economy, a noninterventionist foreign policy, and an absence of regulation in moral, economic, and social life. Main Proponents: • Robert Nozick. Major Facets: • Negative rights. • Lockean rights. • entitlement theory. • Nozick's Wilt Chamberlin example. • Nozick's theory of justice • Liberty. • Markets and free exchange • Property rights. Main beliefs: • According to Nozick's theory, you are entitled to your holdings if you have acquired them without violating other people's rights. • Identify justice with liberty, understanding that to mean as living according to our own choices, free from the interference of others. • Operate with a distinctive concept of liberty, defend free exchange and laissez-faire markets without regard to results, put a priority on freedom over all other values, and see property rights as existing prior to any social arrangements. Examples. • Fair Tax (favored more than progressive to them).

1. The type of economic ownership (private, public, mixed). 2. The way of organizing production and distribution in general (pure laissez faire, markets with government planning and regulation, fully centralized planning). 3. The type of authority arrangements within the units of production (worker control versus managerial prerogative). 4. The range and character of material incentives. 5. The nature and extent of social security and welfare provisions.

Deciding what sort of economic arrangements would best promote human happiness requires the utilitarian to consider many things, including...

Justice

Fairness.

1. Private property is necessary for freedom. 2. Any society that doesn't respect private property rights is coercive.

Libertarians frequently contend what 2 things?

Veil of ignorance

Making decisions with a blind eye to extraneous factors that could affect the decision.

Primary social goods

Not only income and wealth but also rights, liberties, opportunities, status, and self-respect.

Entitlement theory

Nozick maintains that people are entitled to their holdings (that is, goods, money, and property) as long as they have acquired them fairly.

1. Property is not restricted to material objects like cars, watches, or houses. 2. Property ownership involves a bundle of different rights governing one's ability to possess, use, manage, dispose of, or restrict others access to something in certain specified ways.

Nozick's critics argue that it is a mistake to think of property as a simple, pre-social relation between a person and a physical thing. Give 2 examples.

Lockean rights

Nozick's term for the basic moral rights that all people have. Alluding to the political philosophy of John Locke (1632-1704), Nozick stresses that these rights are both negative and natural. They are negative because they require only that people refrain from acting in certain ways or interfering with others, not that they do any specific thing. They are natural because people possess them independently of any social or political institutions.

Rawls's theory of justice

Proponents: • John Rawls (1921-2002). Major Facts: • Original position. • The nature of the choice. • The Veil of ignorance. • Choosing the principles. • Primary social goods. • Maximin rule. • Difference principle. • Fairness and the basic structure. • Benefits and burdens. Main Beliefs: • This theory lies within the social-contract tradition. He asks us to imagine people meeting in the original position to choose the basic principles that are to govern their society. Although in this original position people choose on the basis of self interest, we are to imagine that they are behind a veil of ignorance, with no personal information about themselves. Rawls contends that any principles agreed to under these circumstances have a strong claim to be considered the principles of justice. • Rawls argues that people in the original position would follow the maximin rule for making decisions. They would choose principles guaranteeing that the worst that could happen to them is better than the worst that could happen to them under any rival principles. Rawls argues that they would agree on two principles: (1) Each person has a right to the most extensive scheme of liberties compatible with others having the same amount of liberty. (2) To be justified, any inequalities must be to the greatest expected benefit of the least advantaged and open to all under conditions of fair equality and opportunity. • Rawls argues that the primary focus of justice should be the basic social structure, not transactions between individuals (utilitarianism). He contends that society is a cooperative project for a mutual benefit and that justice requires us to reduce the social and economic consequences of arbitrary natural differences among people.

1. Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all. 2. Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions: first, they are to be attached to positions and offices open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity; and second, they are to be the greatest expected benefit of the least advantaged members of society.

Rawls argues that after considering various alternatives people in the original position will eventually endorse what 2 principles as the fundamental governing principles of their society?

1. A guarantee of certain familiar and fundamental liberties to each person. 2. (More controversial) Holds in part that social and economic inequalities are justified only if those inequalities benefit the least advantaged members of society.

Rawls argues that people in the original position would agree on what 2 principles as the basic governing principles of their society, and that these principles are, accordingly, the principles of justice?

1. His hypothetical-contract approach. 2. The principles of justice that he derives with it.

What are the 2 features of Rawls' theory that are particularly important?

1. A person who acquires a holding in accordance with the principle of justice and acquisition is entitled to that holding. 2. A person who acquires a holding in accordance with the principle of justice in transfer, from someone else entitled to the holding, is entitled to the holding. 3. No one is entitled to a holding except by (repeated) applications of 1 and 2.

What are the 3 main points to Nozick's entitlement theory?

Property rights

What you have legitimately acquired is yours to do with as you will.