Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz simultaneously invented calculus in the 1670’s. As Isaac Newton wrote, “If I have seen far, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” Charles Darwin mulled over the origin of species for 20 years until jolted into publication by the arrival of a manuscript from Alfred Russel Wallace.
Great geniuses and great entrepreneurs make the strongest possible case for outsize rewards based on merit. Yet as Alperovitz and Daly argue, these giants drew their ideas from society around them. And they were often very lucky. For almost any modern invention, there are several potential claimants — even if only one actually got the patents.
The authors review the writing of a long line of the economists and philosophers, starting with John Locke, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill and Henry George, through Thorstein Veblen, Edwin Cannan and Frank Knight to modern economists and philosophers including Robert Solow, John Rawls and Amartya Sen, as well as economic journalist David Warsh. From these, they develop three basic propositions: First, from Locke: that an individual has a right to that which he actually creates by his own unique efforts. Second, from Ricardo: the demonstration that unearned income—economic rent—is created not by individuals but by external forces. Third, from Mill and others: the judgment that such income should belong to society as a whole.
Alperovitz and Daly add their own original fourth proposition: the more advanced a society becomes, the more each of us depends not only on those around us but also on those who came before—and bequeathed to us their knowledge. Moreover, “this past buildup of knowledge should be treated as a common inheritance.” The wealthier our society becomes, the less any individual can rightfully claim a large share of the wealth. That makes our present growing inequality profoundly unjust.
Tuesday 12 May 2009
Unjust Deserts ☀
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