JUSTICE AND ECONOMIC DISTRIBUTION

 Until 20th century there was no federal tax on

personal income. In 1913 it was decided to
collect tax and now it has become complex.
 Tax relief for the wealthy is very important
aspect of the general trend, since 1970s
toward greater inequality in the distribution
of income.
 The US leads the world in executive pay. Not
only income inequality increases in our
society and the middle class shrinking.
 Definitions of justice: Justice is related to morality
as part to a whole, and is often specified in
connection with terms such as fairness, equality,
desert or rights.

 It is one important aspect of morality.

 Talk of justice generally involves related notions of

fairness, equality, desert, and rights.
  Justice is an old concept with rich history. But it
is a fundamental concept of an organization.
 The term just and unjust are vague and different
people use them in different ways.
1. Justice is often used to mean fairness.
Unfairness creates injustice.
2. Fairness is commonly bound up with equality
3. Despite equality, individual circumstances make
a difference.
4. One is treated unjustly when one’s moral rights
are violated.
Mill on justice as a moral right: Justice implies
something that is not only right to do, and
wrong not to do, but something that an
individual can claim from us as a moral right.
 Five rival principles of distribution:
(1) Each an equal share.
(2) Each according to individual need.
(3) Each according to personal effort.
(4) Each according to social contribution.
(5) Each according to merit.
 Utilitarians told us to assess the rightness
and wrongness of actions in terms of how
much happiness they produce. But if injustice
involves violation of the rights then how they
understand talk of rights.
 Justice is a name for certain classes of moral
rules which concerns human well being and
become obligation.
 The moral rules which forbid mankind to hurt
one another are more vital to human well
being
 Reconciling rival principles of justice: Mill argued
that rival principles of justice can be reconciled
only on the basis of the principle of utility, such
as through considerations of the general well-
being.
 For Mill justice is a matter of promoting social
well being. E.g.
 For utilitarian, justice is not an independent
moral standard, distinct from their general rule.
 Utilitarianism does not tell us which economic
system will produce the most happiness.
 UTILITARIAN AND ECONOMIC DISTRIBUTION:
 Utilitarian theory of justice ties the question
of economic distribution to the promotion of
happiness as they want to bring more good
for the society.
 They also tended to favor free trade. They
view increased worker participation in
industrial life and more equal distribution
that should come with
1. Worker participation
2. Greater equality of income
 According to Utilitarianism, deciding which
system will promote most happiness
depends on knowing:
(1) The type of economic ownership.
(2) The form of production and distribution.
(3) The type of authority arrangements.
(4) The range and character of material
incentives.
(5) The nature and extent of social security and
welfare provisions.
 Distinctive utilitarian ideals:
(1) Worker participation: In his Principles of
Political Economy (1848), Mill argued for the
formation of labor and capital partnerships
promoting equality between workers and
industrialists.
(2) Greater equality of income: Utilitarians are
more likely to favor equal income
distribution on the basis of the so-called
declining marginal utility of money.
 The principle of liberty: Libertarians refuse to
restrict individual liberty even if doing so
would increase overall happiness.
 Libertarian identify justice with an ideal of
liberty. For them liberty is the prime value
free from the interference of others.
 Libertarian firmly reject utilitarian concern for
total social well being. Liberty is something
that all of us value, it may not be the only
thing we value
 Libertarian clearly involves a commitment to
leaving market relations i.e. buying, selling
etc. force and fraud are forbidden but there
should be no interference for individuals.
 It is important to emphasize that
libertarianism enthusiasm for the market
rests on this commitment to liberty.
 Libertarian say that their commitment to an
unrestricted market reflects the priority of
liberty over other values.
 Nozick developed an influential statement of
the libertarian position based on the idea of
negative and natural rights.
 The idea of Lockean negative and natural
rights: The idea amounts to
 (1) non-interference with the way others
choose to live or act, and
 (2) the ownership of those rights prior to any
social and political institution.
 So we can say that Nozicks begin from the
premise that people have certain basic moral
rights which he calls “Lockean rights” Nozick
wishes to underscore that these rights are
both negative and neutral.
 These individual rights impose firm on how
we may act. A belief in these rights shape
Nozicks theory of economic justice which he
calls the 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.
 Principles of Nozick’s entitlement theory:
(1) A person who acquires a holding in accordance
with the principle of justice in 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 statements 1 and 2.
 Libertarian defend market relation as
necessary to respect human liberty.
 The same point comes up with regard to gifts
and inheritance . Inheritance strikes many
people as patently unfair.
 According to him, a totally free market is
necessary for people to exercise their
fundamental rights.
 Property is not restricted to material object
like car, watches or houses. In developed
societies, it may include more abstract goods,
interests and claims.
 Property ownership involves a bundle of
different rights e.g. to possess, use manage,
dispose of or restrict others.
 Criticisms of libertarian property rights:
(1) Property includes more than material objects.
It also has many abstract forms.
(2) Property ownership is not a simple right but
involves a bundle of different rights.
 Two main features of Rawl’s theory are
particularly important.
1. His hypothetical contract approach and
2. the principles of justice that he derives with
it.
 Rawl’s strategy is to ask what we would
choose as the fundamental principles to
govern society if hypothetically we were to
meet for this purpose in what he calls the
“original position”
 Choosing the principles: Regardless of their
particular interests, people in the original
position will want more, rather than less, of
the so-called primary social goods (income
and wealth, rights, liberties, opportunities,
status, and self-respect).
 People in the original position will also
choose by trying to maximize the minimum
that they will receive.
 Rawl state the two basic principles of justice
as follows:
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 positions, second they are to be
the greatest expected benefit and
advantaged member of society.
 Rawls intends his theory as a fundamental
alternative to utilitarianism, which he rejects
on the ground that maximizing the total well
being of society could permit an unfair
distribution of burdens and benefits.
 Rawl argued that the primary object of justice
is not transaction between individual but
rather “the basic structure, the fundamental
total institution and their arrangement into
one scheme.
 By the most cautious estimates, 400 million
people lack the calories, proteins vitamins
and minerals needed to sustain their bodies
and minds in a healthy state.
 The problem is not that the world cannot
produce enough to feed and shelter its
people. People in poor countries consume
180 kilos of grain a year while north
American consume 900 kilos