I love Michael Sandel’s books and Justice is a book I find myself reading every two years. It has shaped a lot of my thinking and indoctrinated in me the value of moral reasoning. Moral reasoning is when we think about a scenario and decide on a course of action and then judge it by finding analogies and then rethink the course of action and then repeat this process. The railroad trolley scenario (watch the video in the post below) is a classic example of how you make a decision and then as you change the scenario slightly (equivalent to seeking analogies), you find yourself unable to hold on to your original positions.
This is something that always baffles me as smart people can always justify a course of action. This iterative reasoning process is a key element of philosophy but also essential in navigating the dilemmas of daily life. Even in business we constantly come across questions about fairness, doing the right thing, ethics, etc. People talk about the value of principles set in stone that can rescue you from moral and ethical dilemmas. Hard principles make life easier as they help avoid questioning beliefs regularly and more often than not they are also right (‘right’ here meaning fairly convenient to justify). However, keeping an open mind and embracing moral reasoning in a peer group can also help illuminate unexplored repercussions. In this post I am going to try and write about four things that this book has made me question.
##### Is greater good sufficient in deciding whether an action is right?
Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century came up with this overly simplistic and intuitive theory of the greater good. His idea is simple – do whatever generates the most happiness for the most people. If your action makes 3 people unhappy and 10 people happy, do it by all means. It is the right thing to do.
This is actually the trolley problem in action and as you can imagine something as simplistic can only be applicable in some very narrow “experimental” situations only. John Stuart Mills improved upon this utilitarian idea of morality by adding that you can seek greater good through your actions provided you don’t hurt anyone. This seeks to add a necessary buffer and improves upon Bentham’s theory. A famous case study that comes up while talking about utilitarianism is that of the Ford Pinto – a subcompact car made by Ford Motor Company, it became infamous in the 1970s for bursting into flames if its gas tank was ruptured in a collision. It came to light that the company was aware of the problems but it did a cost-benefit analysis of the situation and came to the conclusion that it was better (utility wise) to have a few deaths (and face a few resulting lawsuits) than to do a recall. This is the classic Bentham model applied in real life and clearly it was a disaster. The lesson here is that there’s more to life than assessing the greater good by a simple weighted measure and we’d do well to acknowledge this complexity.
##### Are taxes a form of modern slavery?
Libertarians hold a very aggressive view on taxation of any kind. Their idea of an ideal state is one that does the absolute least necessary to run social welfare efforts and minimises taxation. The idea is a simple one. If you pay x% of your earnings to the state in the form of taxes, it is equivalent to foregoing x% of your daily hours to an external party, which in simple terms is a form of slavery.
While we would like to minimise taxes, it is important to counter this extreme equivalence. No person lives in isolation and your wages are a result of the work of a lot of people that came before you. Let’s take a simple example of a software engineer in silicon valley. They work on large scale global problems and are thoroughly rewarded for it. Training to become one of them is hard and thus they must feel they deserve the rewards the society bestows upon them. The reality is a little bit more nuanced (something I will keep repeating in this post).
Their work is built upon the work of giants that came before them who in turn leveraged the educational institutions and laboratories that operated in pure sciences. Not to mention the role of public policy and labour markets that changed buyer preferences and allowed for the free market to innovate. In short there is a lot more to the financial well being of a person than he or she will care to admit. They are successful because they were born at a time when the society valued the skills they currently hold. Taxes are a fee you pay to partake in the free functioning of the society that directly led to your success.
##### A related question. What is merit really?
Michael Jordan is the epitome of talent but is that talent all his own doing? Sure, he had coaches along the way but he was the one who worked so hard in the gym. His performances led to his team’s victories and attracted millions who came to watch him. He thoroughly deserves the millions of dollars of contracts that his team and consumer brands throw at him. Is there more to this story too?
Perhaps an argument can be made that he is lucky to be born at a time when the society values entertainment that comes from observing a man throw a ball through a hoop. Perhaps another argument can be made that people far more capable than Jordan will go through their life not being discovered as scouting is not perfect. Perhaps it’s pure dumb luck that Jordan was gifted as a freak of nature and he really didn’t have to work that hard for it. The other question that this poses is it fair to other players in the team who also contribute to the team and thereby Jordan’s success. Wouldn’t it be unfair to let Jordan enjoy astronomically more rewards than others around him?
A famous short story on a similar theme by Kurt Vonnegut is [Harrison Bergeron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron). It is a story in which the society chases extreme normalisation and aims to cut down on people’s inequality by artificially handicapping talented people. This is obviously pure fiction but it goes on to show how seeking equality and fairness by penalising the talented might be a bad approach.
There is something called the [difference principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_as_Fairness) which is a school of thought around fairness, that aims to suggest that all social contracts should guarantee that everyone an equal opportunity to prosper. In other words, if there are any social or economic differences in the social contract, they should help those who are the worst off. Instead of handicapping natural or societal gifts, we must acknowledge them for what they are. A mix of societal conditions, hard work and luck and fight to ensure the fruits of those gifts are better distributed.
##### Is there more to justice than just what is right or wrong?
Justice is not just about right and wrong but also about the right way of valuing things. It is also about social recognition and honour. Issues like gay marriage, abortion and gun control are as much about justice as they are about the issues themselves. The reason people have difficulty coming to terms with legalisation of some of these is because it changes their perception of what is and isn’t honourable.
Let’s take a slightly different example. When volunteer armies fight for their country’s freedom, they are doing out of their patriotic duty and love for their way of life. This sense of duty comes from a deep sense of attachment to the social framework they were born in. When mercenaries fight a war they do it out of an economic contract. While the end outcome is blood for money in both cases, it is radically different in the perceived meaning the society derives from the two actions. There’s honour in dying for one’s country but there’s no honour in losing one’s life as a mercenary (even though there may be same or even more money in it). The reasons for which we do something dictate how it is valued and what is valuable is automatically associated with being more moral.
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I run a startup called [Harmonize](http://www.harmonizehq.com/). We are hiring and if you’re looking for an exciting startup journey, please write to jobs@harmonizehq.com. Apart from this blog, [I tweet ](https://twitter.com/dillisingh)about startup life and practical wisdom in books.