Unjust Deserts

Unjust Deserts PDF Author: Gar Alperovitz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Warren Buffett is worth nearly $50 billion. Does he “deserve†all this money? Buffett himself will tell you that “society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I’ve earned.†Unjust Deserts offers an entirely new approach to the wealth question. In a lively synthesis of modern economic, technological, and cultural research, Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly demonstrate that up to 90 percent (and perhaps more) of current economic output derives not from individual ingenuity, effort, or investment but from our collective inheritance of scientific and technological knowledge: an inheritance we all receive as a “free lunch.†Alperovitz and Daly then pursue the implications of this research, persuasively arguing that there is no reason any one person should be entitled to that inheritance. Recognizing the true dimensions of our unearned inheritance leads inevitably to a new and powerful moral case for wealth redistribution—and to a series of practical policies to achieve it in an era when the disparities have become untenable.

Unjust Deserts

Unjust Deserts PDF Author: Gar Alperovitz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book

Book Description
Warren Buffett is worth nearly $50 billion. Does he “deserve†all this money? Buffett himself will tell you that “society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I’ve earned.†Unjust Deserts offers an entirely new approach to the wealth question. In a lively synthesis of modern economic, technological, and cultural research, Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly demonstrate that up to 90 percent (and perhaps more) of current economic output derives not from individual ingenuity, effort, or investment but from our collective inheritance of scientific and technological knowledge: an inheritance we all receive as a “free lunch.†Alperovitz and Daly then pursue the implications of this research, persuasively arguing that there is no reason any one person should be entitled to that inheritance. Recognizing the true dimensions of our unearned inheritance leads inevitably to a new and powerful moral case for wealth redistribution—and to a series of practical policies to achieve it in an era when the disparities have become untenable.

Moral Agents and Their Deserts

Moral Agents and Their Deserts PDF Author: Sophia Vasalou
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691171432
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Must good deeds be rewarded and wrongdoers punished? Would God be unjust if He failed to punish and reward? And what is it about good or evil actions and moral identity that might generate such necessities? These were some of the vital religious and philosophical questions that eighth- and ninth-century Mu'tazilite theologians and their sophisticated successors attempted to answer, giving rise to a distinctive ethical position and one of the most prominent and controversial intellectual trends in medieval Islam. The Mu'tazilites developed a view of ethics whose distinguishing features were its austere moral objectivism and the crucial role it assigned to reason in the knowledge of moral truths. Central to this ethical vision was the notion of moral desert, and of the good and evil consequences--reward or punishment--deserved through a person's acts. Moral Agents and Their Deserts is the first book-length study of this central theme in Mu'tazilite ethics, and an attempt to grapple with the philosophical questions it raises. At the same time, it is a bid to question the ways in which modern readers, coming to medieval Islamic thought with a philosophical interest, seek to read and converse with Mu'tazilite theology. Moral Agents and Their Deserts tracks the challenges and rewards involved in the pursuit of the right conversation at the seams between modern and medieval concerns.

Getting Even

Getting Even PDF Author: Charles K. B. Barton
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
ISBN: 9780812694024
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
The author of this text aims to show that revenge is a required form of justice that should be incorporated into the criminal justice system. He argues that the current system disempowers those who are victims of crime, the accused, and their respective communities.

The Tierra Solution

The Tierra Solution PDF Author: Frans C. Verhagen
Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.
ISBN: 1616406887
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
"A visionary and immensely practical approach to reforming today's bubble finance and taming its global casino. Verhagen [...] illuminates the win-win solutions possible when we combine monetary transformation with low-carbon, renewable resource strategies and equitable approaches to sustainable development." -Hazel Henderson, President of Ethical Markets Media, author and creator of The Green Transition Scoreboard As climate change continues to threaten the earth and as the global financial crisis lingers, governments and communities need to take charge of their own and global monetary systems. Sustainability sociologist Frans Verhagen proposes a solution-the Tierra Solution-to repair the present global monetary, financial, and economic systems that enrich the few, impoverish the many, and imperil the planet. Verhagen calls for transformational changes in order to advance climate-resilient economic development. The Tierra Solution proposes: -A credit-based financial system governed by a Global Central Bank, -A banking system without the privilege of money creation, and most importantly, -A carbon standard for the international monetary system with the Tierra as the unit of account. The Tierra Solution is an in-depth and thought-provoking read that shows an innovative path for global citizens who want to combat climate change, the economic crisis and poverty, and for public officials, economists, international development experts, and climate scientists who want to be part of an integrated solution to the dual challenges of climate change and financial crises. "Whether you agree or disagree, The Tierra Solution challenges us with an innovative proposal. No tinkering here. Verhagen is out to lay a new foundation for environmental and climate justice, with an overhaul of the international monetary system that builds the cost of environmental degradation into economic calculations." -Rev. Arthur Simon, President Emeritus and founder of Bread for the World "This plan for a carbon-based international monetary standard that addresses both climate change and global economic inequities is bold, visionary, and truly transformative. It is a must-read for everyone who cares about the fate of the earth." -Sheila D. Collins, Professor of Political Science Emerita, William Paterson University FRANS C. VERHAGEN is a sustainability sociologist with a Ph.D. in the sociology of international development from Columbia University. He founded the Queens Green Party, the Riverside Church Ecology Task Force, and the Ecolinguistics Commission. He has worked around the world and online teaching environmental policies and sustainability.

Moral Puzzles and Legal Perplexities

Moral Puzzles and Legal Perplexities PDF Author: Heidi M. Hurd
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 131651045X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 491

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Book Description
Engages with the life and work of Larry Alexander to explore puzzles and paradoxes in legal and moral theory.

Injury and Injustice

Injury and Injustice PDF Author: Anne Bloom
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108352200
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
This book addresses some of the most difficult and important debates over injury and law now taking place in societies around the world. The essays tackle the inescapable experience of injury and its implications for social inequality in different cultural settings. Topics include the tension between physical and reputational injuries, the construction of human injuries versus injuries to non-human life, virtual injuries, the normalization and infliction of injuries on vulnerable victims, the question of reparations for slavery, and the paradoxical degradation of victims through legal actions meant to compensate them for their disabilities. Authors include social theorists, social scientists and legal scholars, and the subject matter extends to the Middle East and Asia, as well as North America.

The Age of Unproductive Capital

The Age of Unproductive Capital PDF Author: Ladislau Dowbor
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527523144
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
This book offers a very direct and readable analysis of the main challenges facing our societies today, such as reducing inequality, protecting the planet, and in particular mobilizing our financial resources which linger in tax havens and feed speculation, instead of funding the sustainable development we need. It precisely considers the most important factors, including corporate governance, financialization, capturing political power, and the limits to adequate national economic policies in a world dominated by global finance. The book’s presentation of how sensible and productive policies are dismantled will be highly interesting for the international community, whether in the academic, corporate or government spheres.

American Amnesia

American Amnesia PDF Author: Jacob S. Hacker
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451667833
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Introduction : prosperity lost -- Coming up short -- The great divide -- The trouble with markets -- How America got rich -- "An established and useful reality" -- American amnesia -- We're not in Camelot anymore -- This is not your father's party -- The modern robber barons -- A crisis of authority -- Conclusion : the positive-sum society.

Chance, Merit, and Economic Inequality

Chance, Merit, and Economic Inequality PDF Author: Joseph de la Torre Dwyer
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030211266
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This book develops a novel approach to distributive justice by building a theory based on a concept of desert. As a work of applied political theory, it presents a simple but powerful theoretical argument and a detailed proposal to eliminate unmerited inequality, poverty, and economic immobility, speaking to the underlying moral principles of both progressives who already support egalitarian measures and also conservatives who have previously rejected egalitarianism on the grounds of individual freedom, personal responsibility, hard work, or economic efficiency. By using an agnostic, flexible, data-driven approach to isolate luck and ultimately measure desert, this proposal makes equal opportunity initiatives both more accurate and effective as it adapts to a changing economy. It grants to each individual the freedom to genuinely choose their place in the distribution. It provides two policy variations that are perfectly economically efficient, and two others that are conditionally so. It straightforwardly aligns outcomes with widely shared, fundamental moral intuitions. Lastly, it demonstrates much of the above by modeling four policy variations using 40 years of survey data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics.

Esther

Esther PDF Author: Carol M. Bechtel
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 161164920X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
The biblical queen Esther is one of Scripture's most fascinating persons, and the drama of the book bearing her name is clearly captured in this superb commentary. Carol Bechtel expertly explores the historical settings, literary structures, and theological themes that emerge in the book of Esther. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.