‘SOCIAL JUSTICE’ AND FREEDOM UNDER THE LAW
The idea of social justice suggests that people should be rewarded based on their contributions to society. For this to happen, there must be an authority that decides what tasks individuals should do and how they will be rewarded. This creates a system where people must follow specific instructions from that authority, instead of being free to make their own choices within general rules, which is how a market works.
Changing the rules for individual behavior alone won’t lead to real social justice because no set of rules can guarantee fair distribution of benefits in a large society. Achieving a specific kind of benefit distribution requires knowledge about how one person's actions affect others, which cannot happen without coordination from a central authority. Therefore, the goal of distributive justice actually goes against individual freedom and the rule of law.
Supporters of distributive justice often believe it can exist alongside laws that protect individual freedom, but such laws usually end up controlling people instead of safeguarding their rights. This means that public laws often overpower private freedoms.
In a free society, the government can help ensure that everyone has a safety net, like a minimum income, without taking away individual freedoms, as long as the market is still allowed to function independently. Many feelings of injustice arise from system-wide barriers that limit opportunities for people. Some differences in circumstances are unavoidable, and it is not fair to try to make up for these differences by taking opportunities away from those who already have them.
The idea of social justice suggests that people should be rewarded based on their contributions to society. For this to happen, there must be an authority that decides what tasks individuals should do and how they will be rewarded. This creates a system where people must follow specific instructions from that authority, instead of being free to make their own choices within general rules, which is how a market works.
Changing the rules for individual behavior alone won’t lead to real social justice because no set of rules can guarantee fair distribution of benefits in a large society. Achieving a specific kind of benefit distribution requires knowledge about how one person's actions affect others, which cannot happen without coordination from a central authority. Therefore, the goal of distributive justice actually goes against individual freedom and the rule of law.
Supporters of distributive justice often believe it can exist alongside laws that protect individual freedom, but such laws usually end up controlling people instead of safeguarding their rights. This means that public laws often overpower private freedoms.
In a free society, the government can help ensure that everyone has a safety net, like a minimum income, without taking away individual freedoms, as long as the market is still allowed to function independently. Many feelings of injustice arise from system-wide barriers that limit opportunities for people. Some differences in circumstances are unavoidable, and it is not fair to try to make up for these differences by taking opportunities away from those who already have them.