Download Your Turn 3-1 - Amazon Web Services

Chapter 3: Ethics for
Policy Analysts
“If liberty and equality…are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike
share in the government to the utmost.” Aristotle
“It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.” Jeremy
Bentham
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
George Orwell
.
Your Turn 3-1: What are your views on
each of the following questions?
 Does an individual have a right to engage in self-destructive behavior, and
does government have the right to prevent him or her from doing so?
 Does an affluent society have the responsibility to provide an adequate
minimum level of income for those who cannot support themselves? For
those who choose not to support themselves?
 Is it ethically necessary to provide the highest technically possible level of
safety in transportation, factories, and homes, regardless of the cost to
consumers, taxpayers, or workers?
 Should income equality be an important goal of tax and spending policies?
Should the rich pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than the
poor?
Questions Regarding
Basic Human Rights
What are rights?
Which rights are basic?
Why are these basic rights?
Whose rights should we respect: Our nation’s
citizens, all humans, other animals?
The Meaning of Freedom
 Which of the following equations is more correct? Is either fundamentally
incorrect?
 Freedom = Democracy
 Freedom = Liberty
Dimensions of Equality
“Not only do income-egalitarians...demand equal incomes, and welfareegalitarians ask for equal welfare levels, but also classical utilitarians insist on
equal weights on the utilities of all, and pure libertarians demand equality with
respect to an entire class of rights and liberties.” Sen, 1992
 Discuss the dimensions of equality mentioned in the quote by Sen.
 Which dimensions of equality are most important to you?
 Are any of these dimensions likely to be inconstant or
contradictory?
Utilitarianism’s “Bumper Sticker”: The
greatest good for the greatest number
 What do we mean by the greatest good, and how
might it be measured?
 What is the “greatest number” we should use in
assessing society’s well-being?
The meaning of “Utility”
 “By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it tends to
produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness..., or to
prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the
party whose interest is considered.” (Bentham)
 In what sense is maximizing utility a worthy goal?
 In what ways might utility be inconsistent with some meanings of
morality or societal well-being?
Extreme Utilitarianism vs.
Restricted Utilitarianism
 Extreme utilitarianism: Each action may be judged according to its effect
on society’s aggregate utility, independent of any general rules. If the gain
in utility to some outweighs the loss to others, then the policy is just
according to this interpretation
 Restricted utilitarianism: Society establishes a set of rules for society based
on achieving the greatest good for the greatest number. Each individual
action must follow these rules, regardless of its effect on the individual or
society.
Rawls’ Theory of Justice
Basic Concepts
 The original position is a state of affairs in which the parties are equally
represented as moral persons and the outcome is not conditioned by
arbitrary contingencies or the relative balance of social forces.” (Rawls)
 The Veil of Ignorance: “No one knows his situation in society nor his natural
assets, and therefore no one is in a position to tailor principles to his
advantage”
 The Difference Principle: “All social primary goods -- liberty and opportunity,
income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect--are to be distributed
equally unless an unequal distribution of any or all of these goods is to the
advantage of the least favored.”
Your Turn 3-2:
 Which of the following 3 income distributions would you choose?
 Which is consistent with the Difference Principle?
 If your choice is not consistent with the Difference Principle, discuss why.
Distribution 1 Distribution 2
Distribution 3
 Person 1
$15,000
$14,000
$13,000
 Person 2
$15,000
$20,000
$1,000,000,000
 Person 3
$15,000
$20,000
$1,000,000,000
Robert Nozick and the Minimalist State
 “There is no central distribution, no person or group entitled to
control all the resources, jointly deciding how they are to be doled
out. What each person gets, he gets from others who give to him in
exchange for something, or as a gift. In a free society...new holdings
arise out of the voluntary exchanges and actions of persons.”
Nozick’s Concepts
 Just Acquisition: If the property is not spoiled, if adequate property remains
for others, and if the property is used productively, the acquisition of unowned property is just. However, one person’s labor may not be owned by
another.
 Just Transfer: Transfers are just they are made through voluntary and
informed exchange between the two parties. If a person offers a service
which many people are freely willing to pay for, then there is no ethical limit
on that person’s earned income.
 Moral Side Constraints: Limits on what individuals, groups, or institutions may
do in pursuing their ethical or other goals. These constraints need not be
the same as the goals themselves.
A Graphical Representation
of Redistribution
The Utility Possibilities Frontier
 A Utility Possibilities Frontier measures the utility of two individuals measured
on the horizontal and vertical axes.
 A neutral transfer is a costless transfer of income which does not alter either
party’s behavior or productivity. With = tastes, the two endpoints are equal.
 A non-neutral transfer can alter productive behavior and can involve costs.
Utilitarian Optimal Transfer
with Neutral Transfers
(3-1) Utilitarian Social Welfare Function = URitchie + UPaul
(3-2) The Utilitarian Social Indifference Curve
UPaul = SWFUtilitarian - URitchie.
(slope = -1)
Utilitarian Transfer with Non-Neutral Transfers
(significant inequality remains)
The Utilitarian Redistribution Rule: Redistribute income
as long as the marginal utility of the income gained is
greater than the marginal utility of the income lost.
The Rawlsian social welfare function
 The difference principle implies that society’s well being is based on the
well being of the least well-off person.
 As a formula, SWF = min[URitchie, UPaul],
 Rawlsian Indifference Curves are L-shaped
Rawlsian Optimal Transfers
According to the Difference Principle, is A or B the
preferred distribution given non-neutral transfers?
Why?
Nozick: Non-Voluntary Transfers with and
without a Moral Side Constraint on Income
Your Turn 3-3: If you had to choose,
would you identify yourself as most in
agreement with utilitarians, Rawls, or
Nozick?
Conclusion
 The greatest possible total happiness, the greatest possible equality, the greatest
possible achievement of basic human rights, and the greatest possible adherence to a
fair process are very different goals for society, and inevitably lead to conflicting policy
judgments.
 Ethics is most effective when it leads to the universal application of norms which,
for many, involve a degree of personal sacrifice for the social good.
 Understanding more about ethics may deepen your understanding of the logic
and limitations of your particular ethical and ideological preferences, and also
introduce a healthy degree of open-mindedness to your policy positions.