Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Marginal Utility, Economic Inequality, Thomas Piketty

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 1020E
• Professor: Nigmendra Narain

Document Summary

Equality 2: thomas piketty, capital in the twenty-first century. Rich getting more rich quicker, poor/working class continues to see pay slide: obama on the defining challenge of our time . First case: self respect: self-respect depends on what you can do relative to other people, exclusion from common life" leads to a lack of self-respect, self-respect requires from us participation in society on relatively equal terms with others. Third case: fraternity/solidarity: economic inequality is bad for communal, fraternal or solidaristic social relations, economically stratified communities: physically and socially gated. 10/14/2015: but solidarity is not as uncontroversially valuable as self-respect or health. Goods such that you can give someone more only by giving others less. University placements: the instrumental value of education. The importance of getting a positional advantage over others in the competition. Each of these seems strictly egalitarian but isn"t: utilitarianism. The right action is the one that maximizes happiness, counting each person equally.