Friday, November 30, 2012

Can We Collectively (As A Nation or Group) Justly Inherit Good Fortune/Advantages?


From our reading and lecture, it seems that there is at least some conception of collective responsibility in the average person. When talking about Patriotism and immigration laws, Sandel touches on the issue of equality among nations:
The inequality of nations complicates the case for national community. If all countries had comparable wealth, and if every person were a citizen of some country or other, the obligation to take special care of one’s own people would not pose a problem--at least not from the standpoint of justice. But a world with vast disparities between rich and poor countries, the claims of community can be in tension with the claims of equality (230). 
I pose this question: if you can collectively inherit obligations to address past injustices, can you also collectively inherit good fortune/advantages? At face value, one would seem to follow the other.

The first thing that comes to my mind is a Rawlsian argument. Placing yourself behind a “veil of ignorance” would compel you to correct imbalances and injustices unless an imbalance  could be determined as favorable for everyone.  This would compel us to correct injustices and oppose both benign and harmful imbalances. The problem with using Rawls’s principles here is that they are meant to be the governing principles of a single society, and it isn't clear from our reading what Rawls’s foreign policy might be. Perhaps one could make the argument that we’re all part of a larger, international society, but I think this argument would be met by a string of  equally valid objecting arguments. At the very least, the current state of affairs don’t seem to indicate that we view the international community as an amalgamated society.

One could also make the argument that collective wealth and advantages directly affect human rights and the quality of life (things we tend to view as universal). To see an example of this, check out this chart (I highly recommend spending some time looking around Dr. Rosling’s site. He has some great data graphing techniques. He has also presented some great TED talks.). At this point, it becomes a contested issue between universal obligations and loyalty-derived obligations, and I think we have all agreed that either may win over the other, depending on the specific person making the judgment.  Perhaps one could make the argument that we all have loyalty to people in general? If it isn't restricted to a subset of the population, is it really a loyalty?

What do you think, and what’s the argument for your viewpoint (let’s try to exclude ideas of practicality)? In this instance, the well-being of people across the globe overwhelms my feelings of patriotism. I'm essentially applying Rawls's principles on a global scale. I also apply utilitarian calculus to convince myself; if there are people suffering because their basic needs aren't being met, I don't think other subsections of people should be happily living in excess.

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