Distributive Justive Flashcards
(19 cards)
redistribution by government
directly (transfer payments), or indirectly (public goods). All governments do this to some extent, via coercive taxation
Robert Nozick (1974)
if slavery is unjust, then so
too are all schemes of
redistributive taxation. Since slavery is unjust, so is redistribution
Nozicks view on taxation
1) Slavery is unjust.
it is unjust to force one agent to work
for another
(2) Thus, if slavery is unjust, then so too is
forcing someone to work
(3) There is no morally relevant difference
between forcing someone to work, and forcibly confiscating some portion of their income.
Nozick (1974, p. 169): “…taking the earnings of n hours labour is like taking n hours from the person: it is like forcing the person to work n hours for another’s purpose.”
(4) Therefore, forcibly confiscating some portion of a person’s income is unjust.
(4) To subject someone to a regime of coercive taxation is to forcibly confiscate some proportion of their income.
(5) Therefore, taxation is unjust because it is the moral equivalent of slavery.
(6) Therefore, all schemes for the redistribution of income are also unjust
–since all such schemes rely upon coercive taxation
Why does Nozick argue that coercive taxation is unjust?
- Appeals to liberty.
The taxation as slavery argument is an
argument of this kind. - Appeals to property rights
The property rights strategy
redistributive taxation deprives persons
of income or wealth they would otherwise have enjoyed. It therefore violates individuals’ property rights
property rights definition
some agent, A, has property rights
over some object, O, if A has the right to possess, control, use, and
transfer O without interference from any other agent, B
Locke on property
we can come to have property rights over unowned aspects of the external world
by mixing our labour with them
critique on Locke
First: the view rests on the presumption that the external world is initially unowned. Why not instead assume that it is owned jointly, for example?
Second: the labour-mixing theory seems rather peculiar (tomato juice case).
Third: seems to, in principle, tolerate virtually unlimited inequality.
Fourth: property rights imply duties for others.
* But why should I take the fact that you
have mixed your labour with something to be a reason why I should respect your holdings?
Main argument against Locke
The property rights strategy seems to rest upon the presupposition that we
have natural rights to our income and wealth that somehow precede the state and must therefore limit its right to tax
Murphy and Nagel on Locke’s property rights
there would be no state, nor any meaningful collective action, and therefore no
property rights at all but for taxation.
It’s therefore incoherent to claim that taxation violates our property rights. Property
rights would not exist but for taxation!
rawls presupposes two things about all citizens
- all citizens are of equal moral value
- are fully co-operating members of that society
The Difference Principle
social and economic inequalities must be arranged to the maximum benefit of
the least advantaged
Rawls on social contract
the rules of justice are whatever mutually
disinterested, rational people would agree to in the ‘original position’
intuitive argument for difference principal
“those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of success regardless of their initial place
in the social system, that is, irrespective of the income class into which they are born.”, aka the principle of equal opportunity
Social contract definition
Individuals come together with a desire to form a society for mutual benefit – a “cooperative venture for mutual advantage”
*Individuals ‘contract’ with one another
– giving up some of their rights to a central political authority in return for various benefits
Define “original position”
the ‘state of nature’
‘veil of ignorance’
We imagine that the parties to the original
position lack certain information about themselves.
Define the maximin strategy
the strategy of making sure the worst-off group is as well off as possible
Define Just-steps principle
Whatever arises from a just situation, by just steps, is just.
