ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Distributive Justice - what is the state's role in distribution of resources?

Updated on May 29, 2014

Strict Equality: Everyone should receive the same material goods and services

Egalitarianism: Recognises this equality but is less strict. People receive resources and can use them to prosper, therefore creating inequality after the original position of equality.

Need: 'From each according to ability, to each according to need' ~ Marx

Desert: People are rewarded according to effort, compensation, contribution, and virtue

When thinking about the idea of justice, the first thing people may think of is equality. However, this isn't always the way forward in creating a just and fair society. It is Marx's view that resources should be distributed according to need and this offers many advantages because it means that those with abilities significantly lower than others can receive the extra support they need in order to be able to give back to the community. It ensures equality of opportunity. However, there is a risk of a loss of motivation which could be accounted for by other theories of justice such as desert. It also presents issues when trying to determine what exactly people do need as this is subjective according to each society. If we begin with everything we need, where do we go from there? There is nothing in this theory to help us advance as a society. Marx's account of distributive justice does not provide a convenient or convincing argument and fails to account for natural progression within society.

Philosophers and their view on jusitce

Philosopher
Position
Comments
Ronald Dworkin
Wrong to make people equal
Equal redistribution is not compatible with personal responsibility
Aristotle
Desert
People receive what they deserve but with a basic level of resources provided by state
John Locke
Desert
No redistribution. The state's role is minimal
Marx & Engels
Need
The state should provide for human functions
John Rawls
Egalitarian (ish)
Equality of opportunity but with allowance of the creation of inequalities
Source

Strict Equality

The issue with strict equality is that people have different preferences and needs, so it doesn't really provide any just basis for equality at all. Imagine everyone had the same income. To some people, who may naturally be inclined to live the frugal lifestyle, that income would be more than enough. To others it is simply not enough to be able to provide for their family. Now if we took the term literally to mean that everyone received all the same material goods, life would be the same for everyone. What about dentists? They require different resources to say, a musician.

This idea of justice oppresses people, because in order to maintain it, there would have to be zero allowance of freedom in terms of what people do with the resources they receive. Otherwise inequalities would quickly emerge and the theory would disintegrate.

Natural differences in people are not treated fairly, or arguably, equally. Someone with a disability surely deserves more help than a perfectly able bodied individual.

Moreover, it doesn't exactly provide equality of opportunity because some resources are considered useless to certain individuals with certain needs. For an individual to be happy and to feel able to achieve, they need the opportunity to pursue that. So justice isn't about equality of resources, but about equality of opportunity.

What do you think?

Should we get what we deserve, and only what we deserve?

See results
Source

Desert

John Locke proposed that the sole role of the state is to protect life, liberty and property. Redistribution doesn't come anywhere into that role. So, leaving people to it, they receive what they work for, and so they receive what they deserve.

There are four parts to the desert theory of justice:

  1. Effort - People are rewarded in proportion with the effort they make on their work
  2. Compensation - All costs someone incurs through their work, not just the effort, should be rewarded.
  3. Contribution - The value of contribution that the individual makes on social productivity determines what they deserve.
  4. Virtue - The virtuous are rewarded, as suggested by Aristotle

There are a LOT of issues with this theory however.

First, those first two theories listed above reward everyone who works, supposedly including those who are working towards evil. This is quite clearly unjust.

Secondly, it's difficult to determine what counts as more effort and contribution. There are examples of this in modern life. A footballer has more of an effect on people at any one time than a nurse does, and in turn they are rewarded more for their efforts than that nurse. But is this just? It can be argued that a nurse has a much more positive influence on society and lifestyle, you may agree.

Another issue is that not everyone is capable of making these valuable contributions. Sure, many may just be lazy and so don't receive as much as others, which is fine, but many individuals simply cannot work due to health or mental conditions. Where does this leave them? Without help apparently.

What if I win a competition without putting any effort towards it at all, do I deserve the reward then?

Source

You've just been appointed ruler of the universe, quite abruptly and unexpectedly. Which principle of justice do you rule according to? Make your decision wisely!

Need

Marx once famously wrote: 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.'

This doesn't necessarily create equality because people have different needs, they therefore receive different levels of and types of resources. Any excess resources that are not needed by the particular individual are redistributed.

But once again, issues are presented. For starters, there are some natural needs that cannot be provided for the state... sex, for example. Should the state run prostitution? I don't think so. There is also the problem of needs inflation, what with the growth of society. This is why it is very important to make the distinction between needs and wants. Supposedly, needs are objective while desires are subjective, but the line between the two is very thin and it is quite easy to find yourself on the wrong side of that line.

Another issue is that people may end up receiving what they don't deserve. For instance, an individual who has been chain smoking for the past 40 years may require NHS treatment, but does he deserve this? It's difficult to say and all depends on your moral values.

A great activity to understand the veil of ignorance

Justice as fairness

John Rawls comes the closest to the idea of justice in my opinion. He ensures that people are born with equal opportunity, but recognises that inequalities are not only inevitable, but necessary for the development of society. However, to avoid too much inequality, he proposes the difference principle, whereby he argues that differences in equality are allowed, providing those differences benefit everyone. So higher tax rates for the richer would be justified and necessary according to Rawls.

You may be aware already of his famous thought experiment in which he places the individual behind a veil of ignorance. Well, it is through this thought experiment that Rawls came up with his theory of justice. However, you can't deny that he was heavily influenced by the context in which he lived, which was of course a very liberal society, so he had to tailor his philosophies to his audience, otherwise he would not be as highly a considered philosopher as he is today. Cheeky.

Despite this though, his theory does hold some weight. When place in what he calls 'the original position' where human beings have no idea who the are, where they come from, what their race, sexuality, disability, value is, they would choose a set of rules, a theory of justice, that would benefit everyone. This is because they make emerge from this veil living in absolute poverty so they want to make themselves as safe as possible.

But this isn't the end, not yet.

A still from the film '12 Years a Slave'
A still from the film '12 Years a Slave' | Source

Meet Robert Nozick

Nozick is with us now to argue that redistribution of wealth, ie taxation, is completely unjust as it reduces us to slaves.

He argues this through the tale of the slave, which I won't go into now as this has turned into a lengthy hub already. But essentially, unpaid labour is slavery, taking away payment through tax means a percentage of labour becomes unpaid, therefore, taxation is slavery.

So his theory of justice is that distribution shouldn't be regarded in relation to need or equality etc, but instead it's justness depends entirely on how it came about. He argues for three principles:

  1. Justice in acquisition
  2. Justice in transfer
  3. Rectification of justice

So if a certain unnamed famous basketball player were to claim 20 pence from every ticket sale of his match, and 20,000 people showed up, freely giving that 20 pence to him, on top of the original price, he would be justified in receiving however much money he would gain from that.

The Tale of the Slave - Explained

Now that you've read the four different theories of justice, and discovered a few of the criticisms, what do you think?

Do you agree with me in taking the standpoint of John Rawls?

If not, lets debate!

If you have anything to add in the comments below please do.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)