Political Science 1020E Lecture 6: W6L Justice
19 Sep 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Liberty, Inequality, Property
Marx on Money and Property
Money Changes Everything
Money transforms human relations
Money is the ‘Universal Whore’
Money talk debases our language
The True Foundation of Private Property
“In actual history, it is a notorious fact rear conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder, in short, force, play
the greatest part”
Karl Marx, Capital, Volume 1
Property, Utility, Rights, Liberty
The Problem of Distributive Justice
Who should get what
What should be Distributive
Money? Opportunities? Rights?
What are Property Rights?
Owners of resources have (limited) rights to determine what to do with them
Objects, Land, Buildings, Factories
Cluster of Rights: Possess (exclude others), use sells give away, destroy
What Justifies a System of Property Right? Some Answers
Promotes utility
Protecting natural rights
Securing freedom
Ensuring equality
Utilitarianism
Choose the distribution that maximizes happiness, well-being, or utility
Impartiality: equal concern
Diminishing marginal utility suggests that goods should be distributed equally
The incentive argument for inequality
Robert Nozick’s Libertarianism
Basic rights include the rights to private property
Entails free-market capitalism with a minimal state
Forced redistribution is illegitimate
John Rawls’s Liberal Egalitarianism
Unrestricted free markets generate unacceptable inequalities
Commitment to freedom means equal freedoms fro all
Redistribution can equalize freedoms
Inequality
The Income Parade
How is income distributed?
Income translated into height
From negative height to 80 Km
Global Income Inequality
Richest 5% = One third of global income
Poorest 80% = One third of global income
1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 per day
Wealth Inequality
Wealth Inequality in Canada
46 billionaires make the same amount as te bottom 14 million
Wealth in USA
Collective net ???
Global Wealth Inequality
The worlds richest 1% have more wealth than the other 99%
The richest 62 people in the world have as much wealth as the poorest half of the population of the world
Locke on Property
Rousseau on Private Property
The true founder of civil society
The fruits of the earth belong to us all
The earths itself belongs to nobody
Right to Private Property
Nozick’s three types of principle in a theory of property rights
Justice in initial acquisition: how does ownership originate
Justice in transfer: what makes an exchanger just of legitimate
Rectification of injustices: what should be done to correct unjust acquisition?
Where do Private Property Rights Come From?
Originally everything that is now owned by someone was owned by no one
What justifies excluding others?
John Locke: How ownership originates?
Locke’s Argument From Survival
Fundamental law of nature
Property in whatever we need to survive
First proviso: non-wastage
Second proviso: leave enough and as good for others
Problems With The Survival Argument
1. Does not generate property rights in land, machinery, and capital
2. Does not explain how we come to won things
The Labour Mixing Argument
Individuals own themselves and their labour
Property arises though mixing one’s labour with unowned nature
Problems with The Labour Mixing argument
1. Its seems unfair to those unable to work
2. Mixing does not automatically generate ownership: Nozick’s can of tomato juice
The Value-Added Argument
Labour adds value to nature
Adding value generate ownership rights
Objection: Does not justify property in what was already there
The Argument From Desert
Those who work productively deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labour
Problem: Again, this seems unfair to those who cannot work, and (at best) justifies only the value added
The Upshot of Locke’s Arguments
It is difficult to justify an account of initial acquisition of property
So, lets focus on the market system in which private property a crucial role
The Market
Four Questions
Who owns what?
Why do people produce?
how are goods distributed?
What determines which goods get produced?
A Pure Capitalist Free Market
Private property rights
Production for profit
Distribution by voluntary exchange
Free Competition
A Planned Economy
State owns all major property
Production for needs, not for profits
Distribution by central allocation
State controls what gets produced
A Modified Free Market (Example: Canada)
Some state-owned enterprises
Some voluntary distribution (charity)
Sale of some goods is prohibited
Some state-enforced monopolies
An Important Question
Aren’t markets irrational? (Hayek)
Hayek on Market Efficiency
Markets convey information
Prices signal shortage and surplus
Profit provides incentives to produce
Want satisfaction and Pareto improvement
Market Failure
Markets, by themselves, do not always function efficiently
Some good have externalities
The cost or benefit of producing these goods is externalized
Negative Externalities
Cost nothing to the consumer, who would rather not have them (ex. pollution)
Free markets over supply them
It is cheaper to make others pay the costs
Postive Externalities
Goods with positive externalities cost nothing to the consumer, who wants them
Public Goods: If provided, they benefit everyone (example, street lights)
Free markets undersupply them
Incentive to free ride
Improving the free market
Internalize the externalities
Make it illegal (or more costly) to produce some goods with negative externalities
The state provides public goods and taxes citizens to pay for them
Arguments against the Market
Wasteful (we waste products)
Alienating (everything is a dollar figure)
Exploitative (money will go to the higher ups not the producers)
Generates unjust inequalities (difference between the rich and the poor)
Rawls on Justice
Principles for What?
The basic structure of society
Why the basic structure?
Hypothetical Social Contract
Initial hypothetical choice situation
The original Position (OP), with its Veil of Ignorance, models equality of concern
Impartiality: “Justice of Fairness”
What principles of distributive justice would be chosen there?
1. Basic liberties
2. Fair and Equality of opportunities
3. Difference Principle
People in the Original Position (POPs) Must be Impartial
Veil of Ignorance rules out bias
I can not benefit myself at expense of others
I do not know my intelligence, economic class talents, sex, sexual preference, race, social class
W6L$Justice
Friday,(December( 15,(2017
12:34(AM
Liberty, Inequality, Property
Marx on Money and Property
Money Changes Everything
Money transforms human relations
Money is the ‘Universal Whore’
Money talk debases our language
The True Foundation of Private Property
“In actual history, it is a notorious fact rear conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder, in short, force, play
the greatest part”
Karl Marx, Capital, Volume 1
Property, Utility, Rights, Liberty
The Problem of Distributive Justice
Who should get what
What should be Distributive
Money? Opportunities? Rights?
What are Property Rights?
Owners of resources have (limited) rights to determine what to do with them
Objects, Land, Buildings, Factories
Cluster of Rights: Possess (exclude others), use sells give away, destroy
What Justifies a System of Property Right? Some Answers
Promotes utility
Protecting natural rights
Securing freedom
Ensuring equality
Utilitarianism
Choose the distribution that maximizes happiness, well-being, or utility
Impartiality: equal concern
Diminishing marginal utility suggests that goods should be distributed equally
The incentive argument for inequality
Robert Nozick’s Libertarianism
Basic rights include the rights to private property
Entails free-market capitalism with a minimal state
Forced redistribution is illegitimate
John Rawls’s Liberal Egalitarianism
Unrestricted free markets generate unacceptable inequalities
Commitment to freedom means equal freedoms fro all
Redistribution can equalize freedoms
Inequality
The Income Parade
How is income distributed?
Income translated into height
From negative height to 80 Km
Global Income Inequality
Richest 5% = One third of global income
Poorest 80% = One third of global income
1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 per day
Wealth Inequality
Wealth Inequality in Canada
46 billionaires make the same amount as te bottom 14 million
Wealth in USA
Collective net ???
Global Wealth Inequality
The worlds richest 1% have more wealth than the other 99%
The richest 62 people in the world have as much wealth as the poorest half of the population of the world
Locke on Property
Rousseau on Private Property
The true founder of civil society
The fruits of the earth belong to us all
The earths itself belongs to nobody
Right to Private Property
Nozick’s three types of principle in a theory of property rights
Justice in initial acquisition: how does ownership originate
Justice in transfer: what makes an exchanger just of legitimate
Rectification of injustices: what should be done to correct unjust acquisition?
Where do Private Property Rights Come From?
Originally everything that is now owned by someone was owned by no one
What justifies excluding others?
John Locke: How ownership originates?
Locke’s Argument From Survival
Fundamental law of nature
Property in whatever we need to survive
First proviso: non-wastage
Second proviso: leave enough and as good for others
Problems With The Survival Argument
1. Does not generate property rights in land, machinery, and capital
2. Does not explain how we come to won things
The Labour Mixing Argument
Individuals own themselves and their labour
Property arises though mixing one’s labour with unowned nature
Problems with The Labour Mixing argument
1. Its seems unfair to those unable to work
2. Mixing does not automatically generate ownership: Nozick’s can of tomato juice
The Value-Added Argument
Labour adds value to nature
Adding value generate ownership rights
Objection: Does not justify property in what was already there
The Argument From Desert
Those who work productively deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labour
Problem: Again, this seems unfair to those who cannot work, and (at best) justifies only the value added
The Upshot of Locke’s Arguments
It is difficult to justify an account of initial acquisition of property
So, lets focus on the market system in which private property a crucial role
The Market
Four Questions
Who owns what?
Why do people produce?
how are goods distributed?
What determines which goods get produced?
A Pure Capitalist Free Market
Private property rights
Production for profit
Distribution by voluntary exchange
Free Competition
A Planned Economy
State owns all major property
Production for needs, not for profits
Distribution by central allocation
State controls what gets produced
A Modified Free Market (Example: Canada)
Some state-owned enterprises
Some voluntary distribution (charity)
Sale of some goods is prohibited
Some state-enforced monopolies
An Important Question
Aren’t markets irrational? (Hayek)
Hayek on Market Efficiency
Markets convey information
Prices signal shortage and surplus
Profit provides incentives to produce
Want satisfaction and Pareto improvement
Market Failure
Markets, by themselves, do not always function efficiently
Some good have externalities
The cost or benefit of producing these goods is externalized
Negative Externalities
Cost nothing to the consumer, who would rather not have them (ex. pollution)
Free markets over supply them
It is cheaper to make others pay the costs
Postive Externalities
Goods with positive externalities cost nothing to the consumer, who wants them
Public Goods: If provided, they benefit everyone (example, street lights)
Free markets undersupply them
Incentive to free ride
Improving the free market
Internalize the externalities
Make it illegal (or more costly) to produce some goods with negative externalities
The state provides public goods and taxes citizens to pay for them
Arguments against the Market
Wasteful (we waste products)
Alienating (everything is a dollar figure)
Exploitative (money will go to the higher ups not the producers)
Generates unjust inequalities (difference between the rich and the poor)
Rawls on Justice
Principles for What?
The basic structure of society
Why the basic structure?
Hypothetical Social Contract
Initial hypothetical choice situation
The original Position (OP), with its Veil of Ignorance, models equality of concern
Impartiality: “Justice of Fairness”
What principles of distributive justice would be chosen there?
1. Basic liberties
2. Fair and Equality of opportunities
3. Difference Principle
People in the Original Position (POPs) Must be Impartial
Veil of Ignorance rules out bias
I can not benefit myself at expense of others
I do not know my intelligence, economic class talents, sex, sexual preference, race, social class
W6L$Justice
Friday,(December( 15,(2017 12:34(AM
Document Summary
In actual history, it is a notorious fact rear conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder, in short, force, play the greatest part . Owners of resources have (limited) rights to determine what to do with them. Cluster of rights: possess (exclude others), use sells give away, destroy. Choose the distribution that maximizes happiness, well-being, or utility. Diminishing marginal utility suggests that goods should be distributed equally. Basic rights include the rights to private property. Commitment to freedom means equal freedoms fro all. Richest 5% = one third of global income. Poorest 80% = one third of global income. 1. 4 billion people live on less than . 25 per day. 46 billionaires make the same amount as te bottom 14 million. The worlds richest 1% have more wealth than the other 99% The richest 62 people in the world have as much wealth as the poorest half of the population of the world. The fruits of the earth belong to us all.
