Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Justice Whats The Right Thing To Do Cap 1

    Uploaded by

    César Arcos Jiménez
    12 views16 pages
    Michael Sandel

    Original Title

    Justice Whats the Right Thing to Do Cap 1

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    Michael Sandel

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    12 views16 pages

    Justice Whats The Right Thing To Do Cap 1

    Uploaded by

    César Arcos Jiménez
    Michael Sandel

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 16
    /NQIDVSLISIANI 3 VIDNID0G 3d S3NI4 NOD OaVaNVISA ‘N34 SONWIMTY OAISNTDXa OSN.. or0z e010 :ensowos sowey ydosor : 1059j014 souojen A owsjuewny ‘eywouo>g :esp91"> “repues “£1eunN/ op 07 Buna ay61 ou SaeyM ‘s>RSNC “3G CAVANVOSI “ez-e-d Sung wyo1 a1 Bulog :¥ “dep :ouaRUOD *C FeeySIW ‘fepueS “soINy 1, DOING THE RIGHT THING In the seer of 2008, Hurricane Charley roared out ofthe Gulf of Mexico and swept across Florida tothe Atlantic Ocean, The storm claimed twenty-two lives and caused §11 billion in damage." Kalo left ints wake a debate about price gouging Ata gaestation for ton dollars. Lacking power for refrigerators o air-conditioning in the mide of August, many people had litle choice but to pay up Downed trees heightened demand for chain saws and root repairs. Con (Orland, they were selling two-dollar bags fice tractors ofleredto clear two tresoff homeowner sroof—for $23,000 household generators for $250 were ‘ow asking $2,000, seventy- seven-year-old woman fleeing the hu. ricane with her elderly husband and kandicapped daughter was charged 5160 per night for «mots room that normally goes For $40.” ‘Many Floridians were angered by the inflated price. “After Storm Come the Vultures” rea a headline in USAToday. One resident, told it Stores that normally sol sm ‘would cost $10,500 to remove fallen tre For his roo, sid it was ‘wrong for people t "ty to capitalize on other people’ hardship and Charlie Crist the tates attorney general, agreed: "Kt i as tounding to me, the level of greed that someone must have in thei soul tobe willing to take advantage of someone susfering inthe wake ofa burricane 4 msnee ‘lorida has law against price gouging, ad in the aftermath ofthe hurricane, the attorney general’ office received more than two thou- sand complaints, Some led to successful wits. A Days Inn in West Palm Beach had to pay $70,000 in penatien and restitution for ver charging customers * ‘But even as Crist set about enforcing the price gouging lay, some comomits argued thatthe low—and the publi outrage—were mi conecived, In medieval times, plilosophers and theologians believed | ‘thatthe exchange of goods shouldbe governed by 3 "jst pric," deter. ‘mined by wadition or the intrinsic value of things. Bu in market soc: ‘tes, the economists observed prices are set by “There ino auch thing aa just pice” spy and demand “Thomas Sowell, a free-market economist, called price gouging an “emotionally powerful but economically meaningless expresion that ‘most economists pay no attention to, becuse it seems too canfied to bother with” Writing in the Tipo Tebune, Sowell sought to explain “how ‘price gouging’ helps Floridians” Charges of price gouging rise “when prices are signicantly higher than what people ave been used tof Sowell wrote. Butthe price levels that you happen tobe wed to” are not morally sacrosanct, They are no more "special oF fi’ than ‘other price” that market condtions—including those prompted bya Iason ey bring sou! Higher prices for ce, bottled water, roof repairs, generators, and ‘motel rooms have the advantage, Sowell argued, of limiting the use of such things by consumers and increasing incentives for suppliers in far-off places to provide the goods and services most needed inthe Inuriane’s aftermath, fice fetches ten dlls a bag when Floridians are facing power outages inthe August heat, ioe manufacturers will find it wort their wile to produce and ship more of it. There i noth ing uns about these prices, Sowell explained they simply fect the ‘ale tit buyers and sellers choose to plice on the things they ex- change ome Tae mGHT THE 5 Jeff Jacoby, pro-market commentator wrting inthe Baton Gl, argued agains price gouging lws on similar grounds Isnt gouging to charge what the market wil ber. Isnt greedy or brazen. 1s how goods and services got allocated in a free society” Jacoby acknom ‘eged thatthe “price spikes are infuriating, especially to someone whose life as just been thrown into turmoil bya deadly storm.” But publicanger eno justification fr interfering wit the free market. By proving incentives for suppliers to produce more of the needed goods, the seemingly exorbitant prices" fr more good than harm.” is conclusion; “Demoniing vendors won't speed Florida's reovery. ‘Letting them go about dhl business wil” Attorney General Crit (a Republican who woul ater be elected governor of Fords) published an op ed piece lathe Tampa paper de Feradng the law against price gouging “in times of emergency, govern- tment cannot remain on the sidlines while people are charged unconscionable prices as they flee for their ves o eck the basic com modes for their failes ater hurricane Cris rejected the notion | that shete' = prices flected truly ec oxchan “This snot the normal ice mathe station where wing buyers Feely lest to enter at the marketplace ad meet willing slr, ‘where 2 price fagrect!upon based on supply and demand fn an cemergeny bcs seh na fades Ftp of The debate about pice gouging that arose in the aftermath of Hur- cane Charley raises hard questions of morality and law: sit wrong for sellers of goods and services to take advantage of a natural disaster by charging whatever the market will bear? IF so, what, iF anything, shoul the law do about ie? Should the state prohibit price gouging, even i doing so interferes with the freedom of buyers and sellers to make whatever deals they choose? 6 wsnce ota, eedom, and Vitae Ts tind ee ely cvs bow ral nd et cot Pe cme inn dra byl soe be Pee ea ay aa qa bo cs Baste Er cn hong of urea i, woe Se ee ee bok coy ep prego, Jou aod tt epee fred ape pug et reve round hee et axing ele, reopecting feed, tml promoing ite, Exch of hee pos to ere ay adn cow ja Feeds Gr ced re cate ctr about wel, he eb abot edo. is market rma the aaa oh by prong zeros pre wor rd ping he gods heer pope want commen prince, ween ent mele with cool propery are eaie ae ast deca rte Sil wel being) Sead, markt rept iil etn her Rpetec cis pile xian aciaaie oa hoor for emer wht a peo he ng hey exchange Notun oon pce gai vn eke es wo ir pn re aren Hw he ender of toting os respon Fis, cy argue a th wee sce hotel served bye ent pcs charged ed tine Een highpoint nly pots bn Rae ane tails est mes gE jem treet aes een es se enone ee eae peppers peepee ante. dale, excerpt. PRR ea city ofa ic aye pd pee ee Sie nay ouwe Te eveHT Te 7 Second, defender of price-gouging hws maintain tha, under ce tain conditions, the free market is not truly fee. As Crist point ot bayer under duress have no freedom. Thr purchases of necestes ike safe lodging are forced" If you're fleeing a hurricane with your fam, the exorbitant price you pa fr gas or ceri not rely 4 Noluntary exchange. Is something closer to extortion. So to decide swhuther pl peting accounts of welfare and of feedom, ‘Bat we ako need to consider one further argument. Moch public gouging hws are justified, we ned oases these com support for pice gouging laws comes fom semething more vce! ther elie or fredom, People ate outrage at lures” who prey ote desertion of eters and want them punies—not rewarded Fak wind prot Such seainnt a often dumised as avis Toone tht oi ot interfere with pblc pole ot aA Jaa rites, emeonizing vendors won't speed Frid’ recovery"? ut he te gears ata moral argument worth ing serial. Outrage the spec no gee Grit touched on the moral source of the outrage hee de scribed the "prec that someone must have in thir soul to be wing totake advantage afsomeone fering the wake o urine" He ti not explicly conec ths observation to price gouging laws Bat impli in is comment someting Uke the fllowing argument, sich might be led he virtue argument hlviow othe ising of thers, Mone hana persana ic i8at toe with ve virtue Jn ames of tulle a gsc gether. Rather thin pres for masimumadhantage psu lok out $F Eola Anny hich poplar af soa gi ii fi ot et, re St» therTone + ve Wa Boo soy SORT Tara it can. Price 8 wsmiet gouging laws cannot banish greed, but they can atleast restrain ite most brazen expression, and signal society’sdsapproal oft, By , oval of, By pun- thing greedy behavior rather than rewarding it, society arms the dvi virtue of shared scrifice forthe common good, ‘Te acknowleige the moral force ofthe virtue argument snot to Insist that it must always prval over competing consideration. You might conclude, in some instances, that a hurricane-stricken commu ity should make a devil's bargain —allow price govging in hopes of racing an army of roofers and contractors from far and wide, even a the moral ost af sanctioning greed. Repair the roofs now andthe sol fabri ater, What's important t.naiearhewererrtthat- thle ‘ite about price gouging bw isnot imply. rand fcedom, ‘caisson eentsmas apace dspatons ‘ie gas foarte on ish gn nit depen, ; = PETG Talon many who support price gouging law, Sod vite pment cong The reson censor lg ‘mental thn argaments tht appl to elie and freedom, To ask whether & policy will sped economic recovery oF spur economle owth does no involve jag people prefrences Re asumes tht ceryone prefers more income rather thin es and does’ pase fagment on how they spend ther money Sina, to dk whether under condtions of dares, people are acl free to choose doesn't require evahatng their choles. The question s whether, or to what ‘extent, people are free rather than coerced “Th vets sgumantchyconiretrevtrmeegment thn rent vie and wat ce? Don't izes of pra societies agree shout sich things? Andi’ i dangerous to ipove judgments aout virtue through aw? nthe face ofthese worries, many people hod that government shouldbe nestrl on mater of virtue and vie; should rot try to cla good attitudes o courage had on So when we probe our reactions to price gouging, we find our sclrer pulled in two directions: We ae outraged when people get Dovua tne eur THe 9 things they don't deserve grec that preyson human misery we think, Should be punished, not rewarded, And yet we worry when jagments tout virtue find their way into la “This dilemma points to one of the great qustions of pola, ph Iovoph: Boe just socket ecko promote Uae of zee Or should Iw be neta toward ceptions of virtne, 80 dat ciizns canbe fre to choo for themselves the best way olive? ‘According to the textbook account, ths question divides ancient and modern politcal thought none portant respect, the textbook te right- Aristo teaches tht jntice means gvng people what they deserve. And inorder to determine who deserves what, we have 0 tdtcrmine what virtues are worthy of honor and reward, Aristotle maintain that we ean gore out what a just constittion i without fst reflecting on the most desable wa of ie, For him, lw ean’ be neutral on questions ofthe good life By contrast, modern polit phosphors Inman! Kant in the cightecnth century to fon Raws in the twentieth century tngve that the principe ofjstie that define our ightssholl not rest tn any particular conception of virtue, oF af the best way to Ive Stead, ost society respects each persons freedom to choose his oF her own conception ofthe good life. ‘So you might ay that ancien theories of otc tar with Ft, wile modern theories start with freedom, And in the chapters t0 Tome, we explore the strengths nd weaknesses of ach, Batit's worth rotcing at the outset tha this contrast an mislead Tore tur our gaze to the arguments about justice tht animate contemporary politi —not among pllosophers but among ordinary ten and women-—we find a more complicated picture I's true tht pos of our arguments ar about promoting prosperity and respecting todividal fred, atleast on the surface. But underlying these argu ments, and sometimes contending with them, we ean often glimpse another set of convictions —sbout what virtues are worthy of honor and reward, nd what way off a good society should promote, De 10 wusnice ‘voted though we are to prosperity and freedom, we can't quite dake off the jgmental strand of tic. The convition that justice involves virtue as wells choice runs deep, Thinking about justice seems ins- capably to engage usin thinking about the best way olive, nat Wounds Deserve the Puro Heart? ‘On some issues, questions of virtue and honor are too obvious to deny Consider the recent debate over who should qualify for the Purple Heat. lace 1932, the U.S military bas awarded the medal to soldiers ‘wounded or Killed in battle by enemy action In adition to the honor, the medal ents recipient to special prises in veterans’ hospital Since the beginning of the current wars in iraq and Afghanistan, _growing numbers of veterans have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and treated forthe condition. Symptoms include recur. igightmares, severe depression, and suicide. Atleast three hundred thousand veterans reportedly sulle from traumatic tres or major de. pression. Advocate for these veterans have proposed that they, t00, should quai forthe Purple Heart. Since psychological injuries ean be at Teast as debilitating a physical ones, they argue, sokers who suffer these wounds should receive the med. ‘Ate a Pentagon advisory group studied the question, the Penta- ‘gon announced, in 2009, thatthe Purple Heart would be reserved for soldiers with physical injures, Veterane slfering from mental disor ders and psychological trauma would not be eligible, eventhough they aualify for government-spported medial treatment and disability payments. The Pentagon offered to reasons for its decision: traumatic ‘tres disorders are not intetdonlly caused by enemy action, and they are dict o diagnose objectively." Did the Pentagon make the right decison? Taken by themselves eats are unconvincing. In the Iraq War ne of the most common Injuries recognized with the Purple Heart has been a punctured ear Arum, caused by explosions at close range.” But wake bullets ard ong Te IBA THN tombs, such explosions are nota deliberate enemy tactic intended 0 ‘injure orl they are like traumatic sre) a damaging sie et of taitfiel acton, And while traumatic disorders may be more dificult to diagnos than a broken lib, dhe injury they inf can be more se sere and lng lasting ihe the wider debate about the Purple Heart revealed the real iste Inabout the meaning ofthe medal and the virtues it honors, What then,ae the relevant virtues? Unlike oer mltary medal a Buse ot braves, It requires no hero ae, only an eat honors tnsayinfcidty the enemy The question what kind finery soul cers gop ale the Miltary Orde of the Purp Het eppsed award the metal for pycholgi nurs, cing tt “Rings woul "dcus the hnor A poem for the group te thet ieding Hod shouk be an ese qsaitetion "He did't tain wy Boodle injrc sod’ cot But yer E, Howe Tomer Marne captain wh forsincdng yc tess pling ani ofthe dapat He strut he oppostion 0 kept atin the altar ha ws post raumatic tesa ‘Mt wanes "The same clare txt demands tough sides ‘ho encourage sheptic tovard th gestion tha he wens of ae co hut the helt of minds. Sly long ao miary vane bers at nea ut contempt fr the paychlogeal wunds of writ ney thon veteran wil ever ce Parle Heat."* Ste dette cnr the Parle Hear is more thn 2 mdi ot lineal dupe abut how 0 deermin the veracity af injury. tthe testo he dgrement are il conceptions of moral character Meltry valor: Those who insist ht only Heeding wound CETTSTe tat ps traumatic ste reletsa weakness of cae te unworthy of bono Those wo beleve tht psychnlogeal wounds Abo unis arge hat veterans lei lng au td shold ‘ere depresion hae scrificed for their country as surely and as hon orably, as those who've lost Limb 2 mene The diate over the Ppl ple Hw Mette mor po Aimer tric Wc ete vin Sores mi tay mel wong what rts he mel propery boners And anecdotes fer en tice sei ho back aman ei her an rte Thee da mt fet rumen nt ote we aboathon ote ets a ps pei ort de ord and fine i OF est Inthe dois, cneraton of wel an Fedo predominate But uguments hog an wrong of enon trang fiend bk Ait quston wha people ‘morally deserve, and why, m “he bl fr them rte 208- 09a apo For yer tock pres and realex ales hd led. The don ig ce et ung ore Wl eet ba i ntl mse le fara oer eames teed monger vi che now pel Ooo rod Val Stetson he cf cle Teo kd evan not nly biginvesors but alo oda Americans, whoxe eee eee er ek ot hr cae ts cal a Aron sly in 08, neu eee

    You might also like