Question I have a question about Rawls' theory of justice. Part of his difference principle stipulates that "social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a) reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage, and (b) attached to positions and offices open to all." I understand part (b), but part (a) I have some problems with. If I'm interpreting this right, there's a "safety net" so that the least-advantaged members of society don't go below. Thus, it takes care of the poor people, but what do the rich get out of it? After all, part (a) says that it's to everyone's advantage. But what advantage do the rich have by giving up something so that the least-advantaged members benefit?

Accepted:
June 28, 2009

Comments

What you are citing is not the principle Rawls is actually defending as his second principle of justice, it is merely a principle he considers along the way. In its canonical formulation, the second principle reads: "Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions: first, they are to be attached to positions and offices open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity [the opportunity principle]; and second, they are to be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged members of society [the difference principle]."

With the correct text substituted, your point about the least advantaged makes more sense. Still, what Rawls is demanding for the least advantaged is really in one sense more than a safety net. The word "safety net" suggests a certain minimum, perhaps some amount sufficient to meet one's basic needs. But Rawls is demanding the highest feasible bottom position, even if this turns out to be well above the level needed for economic security. So, even if there is a nice safety net for the least advantaged, the society still falls short of justice if it is possible to raise the lowest income even higher. And this makes your questions -- what do the rich get out of it? -- even more acute.

To answer your question: Rawls is theorizing so-to-speak before there are rich and poor, before society is built, before its basic rules are formulated. We can make this more vivid by imagining a few adults stranded together on an island and deliberating about how to set up the economy of their new society. How much economic inequality should the rules of their society allow? To this question, one natural answer is: no inequality at all. Let everyone be entitled to a share of the joint product that corresponds to his or her share of the labor contributed. So, if you did 20 percent of the work in a given year, say, then you should get 20 percent of the social product that year.

Rawls assumes that it may be possible to do better than this, better for everyone, by raising average productivity (output per hour worked). One obvious way to do this is to agree to prizes for the most productive workers. This gives everyone an incentive to try hard to be productive and, with most people working harder (than would be the case without prizes), the average output per hour is higher. We use some of the extra product to pay out the prizes and then distribute the remainder at an equal hourly rate -- and we find that even those who do not win a prize get more than they would have received without prizes.

To give a concrete example, suppose that, if the islanders organized their economy on a principle of equal hourly pay, then their total product would be 24,000 units of food and their labor time 12,000 hours -- so everyone would get paid two units per hour (= average productivity). Now suppose instead a prize were offered promising double pay to the most productive worker, and suppose this would result in a social product of 30,000 units and a total labor time of 10,000 (average productivity 3 units per hour). Since you are the most productive worker this year, you get paid as if you had contributed twice as many hours as you actually did contribute -- you get credited with 4000 hours, say, rather than the 2000 you actually worked. With 30,000 units available to pay for 10,000 hours of work plus your 2000 additional credited hours, each hour would fetch 2.5 units. You get paid 10,000 units, effectively giving you 5 units per hour. The others get 2.5 units per hour, which is still more than everyone would get if there were no prizes at all.

There are of course infinitely many ways of setting up such a prize system that, by rewarding the more productive, raises average productivity. Which of the many institutional design options should be chosen? Rawls answers this questions in two steps. In the first step, he argues that we should consider only those rule systems that raise everyone's hourly pay above what it would be under the equal-pay system (what you are quoting reflects this step). In the second step he then argues that we should choose that rule system under which the lowest raise (over the equal-pay system) is as high as possible -- or, in terms of prizes, Rawls argues in the second step that one should design the prize system in such a way that the hourly pay of those who win no prize is as high as possible.

We can now adjust your question in two ways. First, you can ask whether Rawls's proposal may not still be shortchanging the most productive (the richest under his scheme). Perhaps they get paid twice as much as the least productive even while they are really four times as productive. If this is so, do the more productive not deserve to be paid four times as much? Rawls's answer is that the capacity for greater productivity typically depends on factors (such a natural talents, good parents) for which the more productive can claim no credit, and that the more productive therefore should receive greater rewards only insofar as this also benefits the less productive. (But is there not, you may ask back, such as thing as culpable laziness?)

Second, you can ask why, in our society, where the rich have very much more than they would have in a Rawlsian society, the rich should accept the transition to a Rawlsian society. They have no prudential reason to accept this transition (no more than slaveholders did to accept the abolition of slavery). But if the existing rewards are unjustly excessive, then they do have a moral reason to help scale them back (just as slaveholders had a moral reason to support abolition).