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Ch. 3 Do We Own Ourselves / Libertarianism & Ch. 4 Hired Help /…
Ch. 3 Do We Own Ourselves / Libertarianism
&
Ch. 4 Hired Help / Market And Morals
Ch. 3 Do We Own Ourselves / Libertarianism
Free-Market Philosophy (Jess)
Robert Nozick belies in minal state
The 2 requirements for distributive justice are justice in initial holding and justice in transfer
According to Nozick, past wrong doings can be "resolved" with taxation or reparation
Michael Jordan's Money (Jess)
According to Nozick there are two problems: "liberty upsets patterns" and taxing Michael Jordan to help the disadvantage
Nozick believes that taxing people is taking away their freedom because it violates their rights
Scenario: Michael Jordans get his income from the people who wants to come and watch him play
The Minimal State (Jess)
3 rejections of Libertarian: No paternalism, no morals legislation and no redistribution of income or wealth
"Friedrich A. Hayek argued that any attempt to bring gretater economic equality was bound to be coercive and destructive for a free society" (Sandel, 61).
"Miilton Friedman argued that many widely accepted state activities are illegitimate infringement on individual freedom" (Sandel,61).
Minimal state: enforces contracts, protects private property from theft and keeps peace
Do we own ourselves?
Objections
Michael Jordan doesn't play alone. Libertarians reply that Jordan's team as already been paid a fair price for their work and Jordan doesn't owe them his earnings (pp 68)
Jordan is not really being taxed without his consent. Libertarians reply that just because we live in democracy doesn't mean we consent to our rights being violated (pp 68)
The poor need the money more. Libertarians reply that the money you earn is yours and no one has the right to take it (pp 67)
Jordan is lucky. Libertarians reply that if Jordan doesn't own his skills then he doesn't own himself.
Taxation is not as bad as forced labor. Libertarians reply that taxation and forced labor are both wrong (pp 67)
Selling kidneys
Libertarians believe you own yourself, therefore should be free to do what you want with your body
If there are no restrictions than people might be incentivized to sell all their kidneys and die for the money
Assisted suicide
There is an argument to be made that is compassionate to end someone's suffering towards the end of their life
(image of Dr. Death)
Libertarians believe in self ownership therefore people have the right to end their life
Consensual cannibalism
"extreme form of assisted suicide" (pp 74)
Libertarians explain banning cannibalism is unjust because people own their bodies and lives so they can do what they want with them
Ch. 4 Hired Help / Market And Morals
The Case for Volunteer Army
Objection 1: Fairness of freedom (Nicole)
Comparatively more lower/middle class recruits than upper class (25% have no HS diploma)
Enlistment possible due to lack of alt. opportunities due to class disadvantages --> still denotes lack of freedom
When do systemic inequalities undermine "fairness of social institutions"?
Objection 2: Civic virtue and the common good (Nicole)
US uses foreign soldiers + private contractors in army (aka part of market logic)
Concerns that enlisting for pay undermines freedom & abdicates duty of citizens according to Rousseau
Military service & jury duty are both civic duties according to the 'civic argument'
Volunteer army maximizes utility of volunteers + allows choice to fight
Libertarian: Conscription violates bodily freedom
Utilitarianism: Conscription limits future happiness
Pregnanct for Pay (Brady)
Out sourcing pregnancy (Gil)
Gestational surrogacy removes link between egg, womb and mother means reduced in mother being emotionally attached to the child.
Paid pregnancy is now outsourced to low-cost providers in countries such as India.
It is argued that no baby is being sold because the egg does not belong to the surrogate, only the womb and labor of pregnancy
The total medical costs is at around $25,000 for a gestational surrogacy in India which is significantly cheaper than the US.
"A deliberately policy in poor countries, no less --- heightens the sense that surrogacy degrades women by instrumentailising their bodies and reproductive capacities."
Surrogacy Contrast and Justice
Objection 2: Degradation and higher good (Gil)
"To love or respect someone is to value her in a higher way than one would if one merely used her."
Commercial surrogacy degrades children and women as commodities by treating women's bodies as factories and also paying them to not bond with the children they bear
"Valuing everything according to utility degrades goods and social practices -- including children, pregnancy and parenting that are properly valued according to higher norms."
Humans shouldn't be used as mere objects, but should be treated instead with dignity and respect.
Anderson argued that the social practices of pregnancy rightly promote a certain end, namely an emotional bond of a mother with her child.
Objection 1: Tainted consent (Gil)
"We can exercise free choice only if we're not unduly pressured and if we're reasonably well informed about the alternatives."
3 approach: 1) Respecting freedom. 2) Respect for whatever choice people make, provided the choice don't violate anyone's rights. 3) Respecting freedom impose some restrictions on the conditions of choice.
Example: Volunteer in the army
What's Just-Drafting Soldiers or hiring Hiring them (Brady)
July 1862: Lincoln signs the Union's first draft law- after this, people begin paying substitutes to fight for them, offering as high as $1500
Which is the most just way of allocating military service? We need to look at the 3 ways it is done
Conscription, Conscription allowing paid substitutes, and the Market System
Is it more just to entice people to join the military with monetary items, or to randomly select those who serve
Conscription vs Market
Conscription uses a draft to fill in the ranks, while Market is the use of the labor market to make a "volunteer army"
Due to complaints over the rich paying others to fight, Congress passed a law that any draftee could pay the government $300 instead of serving
