--- david friedman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: "One strong moral intuition, although not the only one, is that you deserve what you create--that people who make a large contribution to the society deserve a large reward. How large a contribution you make depends on a variety of factors, none of which the hypothetical disembodied identity that represents you stripped of all genetic and environmental characteristics "deserves" to have, some of which are characteristics of that identity with genetics added, some of that with genetics and environment added, and some pure luck. ... If you find this way of thinking of it entirely implausible, consider Nozick's example of two men, each of whom is entitled to is current assets by whatever the morally correct rule may be, who bet a dollar on the flip of a coin. Nobody will say that one of them deserved to win the bet. Yet most of us would say that the one who wins the bet is entitled to have the dollar. And if the previous distribution was just, and just distributions cannot depend on morally irrelevant criteria such as luck, that means that we have just approved a move away from a just distribution."
In the first quoted paragraph, you say that at least some of what determines how well a person can contribute is associated with luck and forces beyond that person's control. In the second, you imply that these outcomes of chance are analogous to a small bet between two consenting adults. I don't see the analogy. To say that the person one becomes determines what this person deserves is reasonable, but not as an absolute. The person one becomes is a product of myriad factors, many of which are outside said person's control. Suppose that a person is born into a family of Philistines--truly ignorant buffons and semi-literate at best. Odds are that this person will not enjoy the same fruits as a more-or-less identical person born into a family of doctors, judges, and industrialists. To say that the first person deserves less and the latter more smacks of punishing a child for the crimes of a parent. It certainly doesn't sound like like consenting adults making a small bet on the flip of a coin. -jsh ===== "...for no one admits that he incurs an obligation to another merely because that other has done him no wrong." -Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, Discourse 16. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
