FRAMEWORK AND

PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER 6
 Francisco
 Gaballo, Mary Grace Ann D.
 Genoguin, Karla Mae C.
 Gonzales, Daniel John
 Gosmo, Nelson
 Lachica, Erika C.
 Lim, John Peter Cyrus B.
 Mababangloob, Maria Socorro A.
 Mabutol, Nikki G.
 Malbog
 Malinao, Ashanti Mycha A.
RIGHTEOUS AND
EQUALITY
Justice and Fairness
 Justice means giving each person what he or she deserves or, in more traditional
terms, giving each person his or her due.
 Justice and fairness are closely related terms that are often today used
interchangeably. There have, however, also been more distinct understandings of the
two terms.
 While justice usually has been used with reference to a standard of rightness, fairness
often has been used with regard to an ability to judge without reference to one's
feelings or interests; fairness has also been used to refer to the ability to make
judgments that are not overly general but that are concrete and specific to a particular
case.
 In any case, a notion of being treated as one deserves is crucial to both justice and
fairness.
Principles of Fairness
 In its simplest form, the principle of fairness tells us the following.
 If a number of people are producing a public good that we benefit from, it is not
morally acceptable to free ride on their backs, enjoying the benefits without paying the
costs.
 We owe them our fair share of the costs of the production of that good.
 The principle of fairness, defended by Rawls in A Theory of Justice and widely
discussed subsequently, is sometimes invoked in various areas of applied ethics,
such as environmental ethics, social ethics, etc.
Principles of Justice
 The most fundamental principle of justice one that has been widely accepted since it
was first defined by Aristotle more than two thousand years ago is the principle that
"equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally."
 In its contemporary form, this principle is sometimes expressed as follows: "Individuals
should be treated the same, unless they differ in ways that are relevant to the situation
in which they are involved."
 For example, if Jack and Jill both do the same work, and there are no relevant
differences between them or the work they are doing, then in justice they should be paid
the same wages.

 And if Jack is paid more than Jill simply because he is a man, or because he is white,
then we have an injustice a form of discrimination because race and sex are not
relevant to normal work situations.
Different Kinds of Justice
 Distributive justice concerns the socially just allocation of resources. Often contrasted
with just process, which is concerned with the administration of law, distributive justice
concentrates on outcomes. This subject has been given considerable attention in
philosophy and the social sciences.
 Environmental justice is a social movement seeking to achieve the fair and equitable
distribution of environmental benefits and burdens associated with economic
production. The environmental justice movement began in the United States in the
1980s and was heavily influenced by the American civil rights movement. It has
generated a large interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes
theories of the environment and justice, environmental laws and their
implementations, environmental policy, sustainability, and political ecology.
Different Kinds of Justice
 Injustice- The sense of injustice is a universal human feature, though the exact
circumstances considered unjust can vary from culture to culture. While even acts of
nature can sometimes arouse the sense of injustice, the sense is usually felt in
relation to human action such as misuse, abuse, neglect, or malfeasance that is
uncorrected or else sanctioned by a legal system or fellow human beings.
 Environmental justice-The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people
regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development,
implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.
 Occupational injustice- Occupational injustice occurs when a person is denied,
excluded from or deprived of opportunity to pursue meaningful occupations or when
unchosen occupations are imposed upon them thus limiting life satisfaction.
Different Kinds of Justice
 Open justice- A legal principle that requires that judicial proceedings be conducted in
a transparent manner and with the oversight of the people, so as to safeguard the
rights of those subject to the power of the court and to allow for the scrutiny of the
public in general.
 Poetic justice- An outcome in which vice is punished and virtue rewarded usually in a
manner peculiarly or ironically appropriate
 Social justice- Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic,
political and social rights and opportunities.
POLITICAL
DOCTRINES
Egalitarian Justice
 Egalitarianism is a philosophy based on equality, namely that all people are equal and
deserve equal treatment in all things.
 As an idea, it can be looked at in terms of its implications for individuals in both an
economic and legal capacity.
 Economic egalitarianism, which argues that all should have access to wealth, is the
basis for both Marxism and socialism.
 Legal egalitarianism says that everyone must follow the same laws, with no special
legal protections for one over another.
 Many countries in the world have aspects of egalitarianism woven into the fabric of
their societies.
Types of Egalitarianism
 Economic egalitarianism- Proponents of economic egalitarianism, or material
egalitarianism, believe every member of society should have equal access to wealth
and the ability to make money, whether that be through investments, entrepreneurial
efforts, or income from employment, and that this should translate into everyone
having similar levels of income and money. This line of thinking forms the basis for
Marxism and socialism.
 Legal egalitarianism- Legal egalitarianism is the principle that everyone is subject to
the same laws, meaning no group has unique legal protections over another.
 Moral egalitarianism- Moral egalitarianism is the idea that all human beings must have
equal respect and concern for everyone else. It is the idea that humanity is connected
and that everyone deserves human rights.
Types of Egalitarianism
 Political egalitarianism- People who believe in political egalitarianism espouse
democracy, demanding that every person has equal standing concerning
governmental power. Political egalitarianism posits that each individual has the same
social power or influence over politics in work, government, and daily life.
 Racial egalitarianism- Racial egalitarianism is the idea that everyone should have
equal respect for one another no matter their race or ethnicity.
 Gender egalitarianism- Gender egalitarianism believes that men and women, no
matter their gender, are equal and must be treated as such. Gender egalitarianism
supports equal rights, roles, and responsibilities for men and women. It does not
support the idea that there is "women's work" and "men's work" or gender-specific
roles in business and the home.
Socialism
 Socialism is a populist economic and political system based on public ownership (also
known as collective or common ownership) of the means of production. Those means
include the machinery, tools, and factories used to produce goods that aim to directly
satisfy human needs.
 Socialism is an economic and political system based on public ownership of the
means of production.
 Proponents of socialism believe that it leads to a more equal distribution of goods and
services and a more equitable society.
Origins and Development
 The most famous early socialist thinkers were Robert Owen, Henri de Saint-simon,
Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
 It was primarily Lenin who expounded on the ideas of earlier socialist and helped
bring socialist planning to the national level after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in
Russian.
 Following the failure of socialist central planning in the Soviet Union and Maoist China
during the 20th century, many modern socialist adjusted to a highly regulatory and
redistributive system, sometimes referred to as market socialism or democratic
socialism.
Advantages
 Workers are no longer exploited, since they own the means of production. all profits
are spread equilitably among all workers according to his or her contribution. the
cooperative system realizes that even those who can't work must have their basic
needs, met, for the goods of the whole.
 The system eliminates poverty.
 everyone has equal access to health care and education. no one is discriminated
against.
 everyone works at what one is best at and what one enjoys. if society needs jobs to
be done that no one want, it offers higher compensation to make it worthwhile.
 resources are preserved for the good of the whole.
Disadvantages
 The biggest disadvantage of socialism is that it relies on the cooperative nature of
humans to work. It negates those within society who are competitive, not cooperative.
Competitive people tend to seek ways to overthrow and disrupt society for their own
gain.

 It doesn't reward people for being entrepreneurial and competitive. As such, it won't
be as innovative as a capitalistic society.

 The government set up to represent the masses may abuse it's position and claim
power for itself.
Capitalism
 Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private ownership of the means of
production, especially in the industrial sector.
 Capitalism depends on the enforcement of private property rights, which provide
incentives for investment in and productive use of productive capital.
 Capitalism developed historically out of previous systems of feudalism and
mercantilism in Europe, and dramatically expanded industrialization and the large-
scale availability of mass-market consumer goods.
 Pure capitalism can be contrasted with pure socialism (where all means of production
are collective or state-owned) and mixed economies (which lie on a continuum
between pure capitalism and pure socialism).
Characteristics of Capitalism
 Two-Class System- Historically, capitalist society was characterized by the split
between two classes of individuals: the capitalist class, which owns the means for
producing and distributing goods (the owners), and the working class, who sell their
labor to the capitalist class in exchange for wages.
Advantages
 Consumers enjoy a wider choice of products and services since the system allows
firms to compete with other companies in the economy.
 Businesses are given a greater incentive to work hard since they get to enjoy the
profits they generate by determining the means of production.
 Greater market efficiencies since businesses are encouraged to find innovative ways
of cutting costs while retaining the quality of products.
Disadvantages
 Class distinction between the rich and the poor. The rich enjoy most of the profits
generated by the business while the poor are paid salaries and wages for working for
the rich.
 It allows firms to create monopolies in the supply of products or services. The
monopolies can abuse their powers by charging higher prices at the expense of the
consumer.
Capitalism of Private
Property
 Private property rights are fundamental to capitalism. Most modern concepts of
private property stem from John Locke's theory of homesteading, in which human
beings claim ownership through mixing their labor with unclaimed resources. Once
owned, the only legitimate means of transferring property are through voluntary
exchange, gifts, inheritance, or re-homesteading of abandoned property.

 Private property promotes efficiency by giving the owner of resources an incentive to

maximize the value of their property. So, the more valuable the resource is, the more
trading power it provides the owner. In a capitalist system, the person who owns the
property is entitled to any value associated with that property.
TAXATION
Meaning of Taxation
 Taxation is a term for when a taxing authority, usually a government, levies or
imposes a financial obligation on its citizens or residents. Paying taxes to
governments or officials has been a mainstay of civilization since ancient times.

 The term "taxation" applies to all types of involuntary levies, from income to capital
gains to estate taxes. Though taxation can be a noun or verb, it is usually referred to
as an act; the resulting revenue is usually called "taxes."
Philosophical View of
Taxation
 Taxation is central to the existence of states. It is its income and expenditure.
 Taxation finances the production of goods and services that the market
undersupplies, is the source of income for those in need, and is used to incentivize
behaviour -- to encourage people to reduce the consumption of personally or socially
or environmentally unhealthy things and practices.
 Tax policy is therefore a key element of the wherewithal of our personal lives.
 Yet, a quick search on work by moral and political philosophers on taxation will reveal
an interesting fact: it is a subject that has not received much detailed attention. And,
the work that has been produced is somewhat fragmented.
Are Taxes Moral?

 The moral obligation of paying taxes stems from the virtue of commutative justice.
This theory was originally based on a presumed contract or pact between the
individual and the state. The tax is the price paid by the citizen for the services
rendered to him and for him by the state.

 Tax morality – the willingness of individuals to pay their taxes and comply with tax
laws – is driven by several factors which work in combination to define whether
people feel inclined or disinclined to contribute to the tax revenue of their country.
Legitimate Objective of Tax
 Revenue or fiscal: The primary purpose of taxation on the part of the government is to
provide funds or property with which to promote the general welfare and the
protection of its citizens and to enable it to finance its multifarious activities.
 Non-revenue or regulatory: Taxation may also be employed for purposes of regulation
or control.
1. Imposition of tariffs on imported goods to protect local industries.
2. The adoption of progressively higher tax rates to reduce inequalities in wealth and income.
3. The increase or decrease of taxes to prevent inflation or ward off depression.
Tax evasion and Tax
Avoidance
 Tax evasion- Tax evasion is the use by the taxpayer of illegal or fraudulent means to
defeat or lessen the payment of a tax. It is also known as “tax dodging.” It is
punishable by law. Tax evasion is a term that connotes fraud through the use of
pretenses or forbidden devices to lessen or defeat taxes. [Yutivo v. Court of Tax
Appeals, 1 SCRA 160]
 Tax avoidance- Tax avoidance is the exploitation by the taxpayer of legally
permissible alternative tax rates or methods of assessing taxable property or income
in order to avoid or reduce tax liability. It is politely called “tax minimization” and is not
punishable by law. In Delphers Traders Corp. v. Intermediate Appellate Court [157
SCRA 349], the Supreme Court upheld the estate planning scheme resorted to by the
Pacheco family in converting their property to shares of stock in a corporation which
they themselves owned and controlled.
Benefits of Paying Taxes
 Paying the right amount of tax is a social responsibility to the country. The taxes we
pay will go to the government funds that will be used in developing and improving the
government facilities and life of Filipinos, inside and outside our country.

 If all income earners will pay the right amount of tax, the government can collect more
money to support its objectives such as building roads, schools, better government
salaries and improve government services. These factors can help attract more
investors and jobs in the Philippines. More people having jobs, means more people
having money to spend which will directly or indirectly improve your business as well.
Basic Principles of a Sound
Tax System
 Three basic principles of a sound tax system

 Fiscal adequacy-It means that the sources of revenue should be sufficient to meet the
demands of public expenditures. [Chavez v. Ongpin, 186 SCRA 331]
 Equality or theoretical justice- It means that the tax burden should be proportionate to
the taxpayer’s ability to pay. This is the so-called “ability to pay principle.”
 Administrative feasibility- It means that tax laws should be capable of convenient, just
and effective administration.
Essential Characteristics of
Taxation
 It is an enforced contribution.
 It is generally payable in money.
 It is proportionate in character.
 It is levied on persons, property, or the exercise of a right or privilege.
 It is levied by the State which has jurisdiction over the subject or object of taxation.
 It is levied by the law-making body of the State.
 It is levied for public purposes.