The Search for a Fair Society: Rawls’ Difference Principle ft. Self-Generated Models of the World

October 8. Welcome back. As always, grab a coffee and let’s talk about a realistic utopia of a fair society because without a clearly formulated goal you never get where you want to.

We finally reached one of the most fascinating and unique ideas of Rawls – the Difference Principle. It is part of his second overarching principle that he derived from the Original Position, the equality principle. And it has a correcting character in so far as the principle of fair equality of opportunity would suggest that a truly fair society is one with perfect equality of outcome.

Why? People only deserve or can be blamed for what they are responsible for, things open to choice. We can choose the skills and abilities we are born with as little as we can choose our gender, sexuality, race, class, health, body built etc. These are random circumstances at birth, expressions of the natural law that random searches, while being the riskiest, are the most promising ones. As we have absolutely no control over them, they should have no influence over our lives. The fact that we fulfill our basic contract obligation: that we share the results of our random searches by developing and applying what skills and abilities we got, whatever the results might be, is enough to be supplied with what it takes to engage in continued random searches without fear and have the same standing in life, the same say, as every other member in the group. That’s perfect equality of outcome.

Why does it take a corrective? Why should not all end up with the same like communism wants it? Because while it must be perfectly free to every member how they conduct their random searches as the goal is to harness diversity, to harness the highest possible payoff of all types of searches that random searches offer, and random means done without method and conscious decision, the group needs certain work done to function. There is a balance to be struck. The way to do it is to encourage – incentivize – members to develop and apply their talents to the good of society.

Incentivize is different than force. It is an add-on to the basic support every member of the group must be supplied with so they can conduct their random searches as they think best; not least because we can’t predict whether this is the way the high payoff that random searches offer lies. And in the end, it is the ability to conduct these random searches that motivated every member of the group to agree to the cooperation.

That’s what the Difference Principle tries to accomplish by establishing that social and economic inequalities can be justified. But they can only be justified if they ultimately benefit everyone, and, specifically, if they’ll be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged members of society.

Again, Rawls didn’t think in terms of what the material things that make up the human body seek or that risky random searches also offer the highest payoff. His argument is no less compelling for it, not least because it mirrors the physics behind it all. He came up with the basic needs principle what is the idea that as a society, we have a fundamental obligation to make sure that everyone has access to the minimum level of resources they need not simply in order to survive (again, we can survive alone; that’s not what motivates us to cooperate) but in order to exercise their basic freedoms and to participate in the life of society. In the end, there’s no reason to have basic liberties like the right to vote or the freedom of religion if you don’t have somewhere to live and food to eat. That’s enabling to fearlessly engage in random searches. But economic justice is about even more than basic needs. It’s also about making sure that the overall distribution of resources in society is fair. The Difference Principle defines a precise criterion for thinking about just how widely shared prosperity should be. That’s sharing of the fruits of random searches that only ever became a possibility since all people agreed to cooperate.

Bottom line: People should only have more than others when this also benefits those who have less. How? That’s for another post. For now, do you have any thoughts? Tell me. Tell all. Since our models of the world change with every new information we gather and the models are only accessible to others when we communicate them, we are part of never-ending negotiations that require constant conversation and debate.

To watch this post as a video, go here.

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