PO301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Pareto Efficiency, Trilemma, Capital Accumulation
Document Summary
Cohen"s response is that freedom is about making choices, but freedom isn"t restricted by moral obligations - it"s a should, not a can. Argues that rawls doesn"t go far enough - believes that the rich are morally obliged to work as hard as possible anyway, given the advantages that they"ve been given from their position in the system. Therefore we shouldn"t construct inequalities to create greater incentives for them to work harder because the moral obligation is reason enough for them to do it - morally shouldn"t need incentives. While rawls" reply that we can"t guarantee that people will follow the obligation holds some weight, the. Cohen response to this that we should construct systems where people act morally is more forceful; the argument that we shouldn"t allow the rich to blackmail the system chimes with our intuitions against unfair amounts/use of power.
