Economic Justice, Wealth And Economic Benefits
How to write a short paper for the Introduction to Ethics course1. Select a topic for your paper : • Go to the Concise Edition of the Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues book (it is your E-text assigned for this class) and pick a topic that you would like to explore. The book contains a range of topics from Euthanasia, Racial Justice, Economic Justice to Abortion to Death Penalty to Terrorism, etc. A topic is not the same as an ethical theory, you will be using ethical theories to analyze the topic.• Read the book’s chapter that pertains to your selected topic to inform yourself about different moral positions on the issue that you selected to write about.2. Start your paper by explaining why you selected this topic and why the topic is important from the moral philosophy point of view (hint: people often disagree on how to handle morally important topics)3. Proceed to describe how different moral theories that we have learned about in class would explain different moral positions that can be developed regarding this topic (hint: utilitarian theory will say this about the topic, cultural pluralism will say this, and deontology will say this); please use at least two different moral theories two address different positions on the topic.4. Make sure to use additional sources of information while describing different sides of the issue that you are exploring: you can use newspaper articles, scientific journals (the Library has databases that contain scientific journal articles), and internet data posted by non-profits or think tanks that research your chosen topic. Using mass media articles can be done in two ways: you can either add some factual information to the issue (hint: not everyone who is placed on the death row has actually committed a crime of which they were convicted, etc.), or you can use mass media articles to find an opinion on the issue and integrate it into your paper. Some mass media articles may integrate both: factual information about an issue and an opinion that an author developed or is advocating for based on this factual information.5. Conclude with a summary of different moral philosophy approaches to the issue that you have explored in your paper and tell me which moral theory you personally favor in your own view on the issue. Explain why you are favoring a particular moral theory for this particular issue.6. Make sure that you list all of your references, spellcheck your paper, number your pages, and make sure that it is at least 500 words in length (you can submit up to a 3000 word long paper).7. Bring a printed copy of your paper to class and post it on Self-Assign on Blackboard.
Economic Justice
Name
Institution
Economic Justice
Introduction
Economic justice involves the fair and equal distribution of wealth and economic benefits to people based on their contribution to the economy through the established economic institutions. The reason I selected this topic is that there is a need to ensure that the most basic rights of human beings are met. Economic justice can help achieve this by creating a balance between the wealthy and the poor and by promoting economic equality through fair distribution of wealth.
Economic justice is important because it ensures that there is sustainable growth in the economy through proper utilization of skills to enhance productivity. It also ensures that the growth of the economy benefits the people in terms of distribution of earnings. In addition, economic justice ensures that there is a continuous rise in the standards of living for all people by availing equal opportunities. Through fair distribution of resources, economic justice helps in closing the gap between the rich and the poor. When the poor have enough resources at their disposal, there is increased demand for goods and services, resulting in improved economic growth and sustainability. As seen, economic justice is integral for the development of equitable society.
Economic justice is based on three aspects namely participative justice, distributive justice and social justice. Participative justice is described as the individual contribution of a person to the economy so as to make a living. In participative justice, every person should have an equal right to participate in an economy through productive work. Distributive justice involves a fair distribution of resources based on the individual contribution to the economy. Social justice tries to balance between the inputs and outputs in an economy to ensure that there is fairness and to facilitate continuous improvement of the justice system. All these aspects make up economic justice.
There is usually confusion whereby most people normally relate economic justice to charity. On one hand, economic justice relates to the distribution of resources and wealth to people according to their contribution to the economy. On the other hand, charity involves distributing resources to people according to their needs, regardless of their contribution to the economy. As seen, there is significant difference between charity and economic justice. Inability to differentiate between the two results in disagreement concerning economic justice, especially among people who do not believe in charity.
Utilitarian Theory and Economic Justice
The utilitarian theory states that the outcome of an action should be such that it produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people (Eggleston, 2012). It is concerned with the outcome of an action rather than the action itself, and the morality of the outcome. There are five aspects of utilitarian theory namely consequentialism, individualism, welfarism, aggregation, and maximization.
Using the concept of consequentialism, the utilitarian theory would explain economic justice as fair distribution of wealth to all people. In this case, a large number of people would benefit from the outcome of economic justice by enjoying the benefits of the economy. According to utilitarian theory, if the consequences of the action, in this case, economic justice, results in an outcome that is as good as that of any other action that could have been conducted instead, then the action is morally right.
The utilitarian theory would also say that economic justice is committed to individualism because wealth is distributed to individuals based on their contribution to the economy. Therefore, the sources of value, in this case, economic benefits, are solely based on individuals as opposed to groups of people since the individual input to economic productivity is what is considered.
Economic justice ensures there is sustainable growth in the economy as a whole. Utilitarian theory can explain this as aggregation whereby the value of an action is measured by the total value of individuals benefiting from that action. Economic justice benefits an individual, who in turn promotes economic growth and sustainab...