Economic Justice

Hi everyone,
The model of economic justice with which I most agree is the Kelso-Adler model; this is detailed on the website cesj, under definitions.
The theory rests on the idea that there are three essential principles that must be present in order to establish economic justice: participative justice, distributive justice and social justice. Participative justice is the ability for an individual to make a positive contribution to an economy and as such is incompatible with monopolies or unfair practices. Distributive justice put simply is the idea that if one puts something into the economy, one will get something out of it. This is guaranteed, in the view of Kelso and Adler, through the market operating freely and openly rather than any intervention on behalf of the state. The final principle is that of social justice; the system needs to work without any malign influences or there will be an imbalance that will need to be addressed by an outside agency, e.g. the government.
This model was put forward by Louis Kelso, a political economist and Mortimer Adler, a philosopher with extensive interest in the economy. They published their work The Capitalist Manifesto detailing their theory. Capitalism in this sense means a society in which the bulk of production is carried out by capital rather than the more common meaning of the word.
I feel that these theories are logical – Adler was very interested in logic and the philosopher Aristotle and this lends the theory a grounding in logic it would not have had otherwise. A tripartite structure ensures that each principles is dependent on the others.
The economy is something that affects everyone and everything, whether they have an interest in it or not. When there is a strong economy, we flourish; when the economy is weak or struggling, things get worse. We can look to the events of the past decade to see this – many of the effects of the worldwide recession are still being felt.
What does everyone think about this theory?

I admit, the theory is pretty sound in fact. Given the nature of the research involved the only question which would be brought up is ethics. In world where cash is king, where would economists have room to consider the little people?

I believe the three principles are huge contributing factors to a strong economy so I definitely agree with this theory.

Not to butt in, but - this is useful research. You'll want to narrow it down for the paper. AdamMkIV is pointing in a productive direction. Where do business ethics fit in? In what particular field would you like to examine the relationship between economic justice and business ethics?

-Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderator

The Three points that are bring brought up in this topic are very good and interesting points. I totally agree with it and i believe that this is the key to Economic Justice.