Designing an Economically Just System: Essay Questions

Question 1a: [Prompt goes here]

Design your own economically just system by responding to each of six essay questions (prompts to help you unveil your own system) below. Label each question 1a, 1b, 1c, etc.  Be sure to reply to each question and sub-question. Points will be deducted for failing to reply to any question. 

1. Introduce the basic structure of your own current version of the most just economic system. Your system may be similar to those we have studied; or it might be a system that we have not covered but that you feel aligned with and that already exists in the world; or you may devise your own ideal system. There are three parts to this essay.  Reply to each part after the prompt: “Your response.”
   
   a. State the three strongest reasons (3 premises and 1 conclusion) in favor of the justness of your economic system, including the metric(s) you think most important. You will have a chance to discuss the reasons in more detail in other paragraphs below.
   
   Your job in this paragraph is to give the reader preliminary knowledge of the strongest reasons for your system. (The formatof this particular response should resemble the arguments you submitted for your first two papers; in other words, use the argument format P1, P2, P3 and C. In this case, the reasons should support the justness of your own system.) (1 paragraphs)
   
   b.Philosophically “locate” your system by comparing its main features to the three basic systems we studied in class.
   i) Libertarian/Capitalism (Nozick, Friedman, Hayek);
   ii) Choose one of the critiques of Capitalism (Marx/Engel, Piketty, Stiglitz); and
   iii) Welfare Statism (Rawls, Amartya Sen, Parijs). (1 paragraphs)
   
   c.Identify and discuss the values/metrics your system uses to determine just distributions. Please refer to material and non-material, as well as normative metrics. In your discussion, compare your criteria with affinities you share with any two theoristswe have studied in the course. (Failure to compare your criteria with those of two other theorists will result in deduction of points.) Be sure to include in your discussion the normative balance your system favors between liberty, equity and well-being.  (1 paragraphs)

2. Discuss how your system would reconcile or rectify three types of unfairness listed below.  In your discussion of each point, make explicit your agreement with or objections to John Rawls’ difference principle.
   
   a.Unfairness of peoples’ initial position. (1 paragraph)
   
   b.Income disparities created by the valuation of a free market.  How would your system reconcile or rectify income and benefits disparities among working people rewarded handsomely versus fully working people who contribute to society but do not earn enough pay (or receive benefits sufficient) for basic sustenance. (1 paragraph)
   
   c.Disparities created by transfers of wealth through inheritance; and unfairness caused by having to pay proportionally higher taxes. (1 paragraph) 

3. How would your economic system respond to poverty, both within your own government’s border and outside the domain of your own government? What is the moral grounding for your system’s position on poverty? (For instance, does your system rely upon utilitarian principles, pragmatic considerations, social contract or specific moral norms?) Stipulate your own norms or values on which your system rests.  To what extent would your system’s response to poverty agree with the positions of:
   a.John Rawls (1 paragraph)
   b.Amartya Sen (1 paragraph)
   c.Peter Singer or Philip van Parijs (choose either) (1 paragraph) 

4. Explain how your system differs from or agrees with Sen’s capability approach. Regardless of whether you would adopt Sen’s capability approach, how would your system resolve the dispute presented by Sen (as a parable to illustrate his method),
   
   Between the three children each with justified claims for the flute?  (Anna is the only one who can play the flute; Bob is the only child without any toys; and Carla is the one who made the flute.)  Be sure to give the “grounds” on which you resolve the dispute. (1 paragraph)

5. What tangible benefits does your economic system provide? What sort of material culture would your system encourage and discourage? Describe any important features of your system that you were unable to include, but wish to include, in your response to the above 5 questions.  
   
   You may include what sort of life your economic system would ideally enable everyone to live under in your system.  What human values would your system specifically promote, and which values do you think are essential to living a meaningful life? (1 paragraph)

6. How will your economically just system respond to a future situation in which there is not enough paid “work” for everyone on the planet?  Would your system adopt a UBI of the sort Parijs suggests? How would your system grow, and how would your economy remain or become robust?  (1 paragraph)