Spending Other People’s Money

Download or read book Spending Other People’s Money written by Hannes H. Gissurarson and published by New Direction. This book was released on 2018-12-01 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even if both Rawls and Piketty seem to advocate extensive redistribution from the rich to the poor, their concerns are different. Rawls worries about the poor, Piketty about the rich. Rawls’ theory of justice is really about prudence, and its emphasis on a worst-case scenario alone is implausible. It is Georgism in persons. However, capitalism may be the only known system which fulfils the Rawlsian proviso of maximising the conditions and expectations of the worst off. There seem to be many logical and empirical flaws in Piketty’s case for global confiscatory taxes, and the novels from the 19th century he quotes, show, not the relentless accumulation of capital, but rather its precariousness.