INCENTIVE INEQUALITIES AND FREEDOM OF OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE

Douglas Mackay

Economics and Philosophy, 2016, vol. 32, issue 1, 21-49

Abstract: In Rescuing Justice and Equality, G.A. Cohen argues that the incentive inequalities permitted by John Rawls's difference principle are unjust since people cannot justify them to their fellow citizens. I argue that citizens of a Rawlsian society can justify their acceptance of a wide range of incentive inequalities to their fellow citizens. They can do so because they possess the right to freedom of occupational choice, and are permitted – as a matter of justice – to exercise this right by making occupational decisions on the basis of a wide range of values and preferences.

Date: 2016
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