Fairness - 0 views
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In a competitive market economy the ability of people to obtain goods and services depends, with some exceptions, on the marginal productivity of the resources they hold. The most important resource is a person's ability to work (human capital) but others are ownership of natural resources and capital. Those who hold resources that are highly valued will earn large incomes, whereas those who hold no valuable resources earn little or no income. This unequal distribution of income that a market system produces raises questions of whether or not a market system is fair.
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Fairness is a normative issue, which means that it involves judgments about what is good and what is bad. As a result, economists cannot claim special expertise on this issue. They often rely on arguments from philosophers when they discuss fairness, and they hold widely diverse beliefs. There are, however, some insights from economics that can be useful when one discusses issues of fairness.
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In a world in which everyone had equal abilities but different goals, people will earn unequal incomes.
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