Free and Equal: A Manifesto for a Just Society

A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias. Oscar Wilde, “The Soul of Man under Socialism”

The malaise sweeping across today’s liberal democracies is about more than money—it reflects a more profound crisis of dignity and meaning which is closely tied to changes in the nature of work over recent decades, from the decline in industrial jobs and communities to the rise of automation and the gig economy.

In thinking about the rights of workers versus owners, it’s helpful to distinguish two distinct aspects of ownership. The first are income rights, or “beneficial ownership.” The beneficial owners of a business have a right to any residual income or profits once it has met its commitments to workers, suppliers and so on. The second are control right

For Rawls, changing the nature of work was crucial for bringing about a more just society. In a society organized on the basis of his principles, he argued, “no one need be servilely dependent on others and made to choose between monotonous and routine occupations which are deadening to human thought and sensibility. Each can be offered a variety o

putting values centre stage is not empty idealism, but an essential part of any serious political strategy, since they provide the glue that can bind disparate groups together.

But it makes more sense to think of ownership as something that comes in degrees and entails a bundle of different legal rights, which differ depending on the nature of the item in question.

As Rawls put it, “Lacking a sense of longterm security and the opportunity for meaningful work and occupation is not only destructive of citizens’ self-respect but of their sense that they are members of society and not simply caught in it.”

Economic systems differ along multiple dimensions, including the extent to which we rely on markets and how they are regulated, the balance of private and public ownership, the level of taxation and the role of the state in providing public services.

A “market,” after all, is simply a space in which people are free to buy and sell things, and this freedom of exchange is valuable in its own right.