The Free Market Is Unjust

The principle of market justice is a system where medical care and benefits are distributed on the basis of people willing and able to pay. Moreover, the principle of market justice assumes that the free-market forces for supply and demand can govern health care, individuals are responsible for their achievements, and the market works best with minimal inference with the government (Shi and Singh, 2013). On the contrary, the principle of social justice is when health care is equally distributed, and it is a societal responsibility. Social justice regards health care a social good that should be available to all citizens regardless whether they can pay or not. The social justice method assumes that the government can decide through rational planning how much health care to produce and how to distribute it among all citizens. The problem is that the United States does not follow free-market principles, which can be seen in market justice, and social justice has been ongoing and gradual in the United States. Social justice drives publically financed programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. However, market justice drives employer-based insurance (Shi and Singh, 2013). Nonetheless, there are many Americans who cannot afford insurance, or do not have a job and do not qualify for any public programs. The amount of Americans uninsured is because of health care costs. As health care costs go up, the middle class is diminishing. Health care can very well be a factor contributing to

The top 1% holds 38% of the wealth in the whole United States. The wealthy are usually parts of large corporations and have no problems raising prices. Raising prices largely affects those with little wealth and causes them to sink lower into poverty while rising prices is just another penny out of the pockets of the 1%. The wealthy bear children who grow up in wealth and stay in wealth. Those born into poverty tend to continue to stay in poverty, for the most part. The main reason for inequality when it comes to wealth is how much money creates opportunities to have more money. For example: Most people who have a decent amount of wealth are usually well educated because education is easier when you can afford it. Jobs that require a degree of higher education pay more than those that don’t. People without money tend to not afford to send their children to school so they can only get those lower paying jobs that don’t

What Money Can’t Buy; The Moral Limits of Market by Michael Sandel argues the relationship between markets and our morality. His central concern is the influence of money on the sphere of life traditionally governed by nonmarket norms such as rights as a citizen, care for others, and civic duties. He demonstrated that market is responsible for destroying our sense of morality by placing monetary value to it. This paper will argue the relationship between market and morality through demonstrating the type of goods corrupted by money, the flaws in the market system that causes such problems, and the political solution for this problem as suggested by Michael Sandel respectively.

In the article “Moral Criticisms of the Market”, Ken S. Ewert elaborates on the many critiques of the “Free Market” made by the so called Christian left. He essentially defends the free market against the many accusations, blaming it for the selfishness, materialism, individualism as well as the drive for power within the economic system. Furthermore, although he acknowledges that these issues exist, he doesn’t feel the “Free Market” is the ultimate cause. “The free market is innocent of the charges against it by Christian critics. Its alleged shortcomings are things that can occur to mankind in both a free or command economic system” (Ewert, 1989). Additionally, he suggests that the state intervention and not the free market has caused the

First, the Christian Left’s rejection of free-market policies stems from the belief that the economic system promotes individuals to gain benefits at the expense of another. Furthermore, the demands of a free market can corrupt even a selfless individual by engendering an environment where one has no other choice but to be self-serving (Ewert, 1989). On the contrary, Ewert (1989), rebuttals their argument and argues that the free market promotes autonomous, not selfish, behavior and actions. Moreover, Ewert (1989), does not deny the fact that selfishness is present in the free market. However, greed can be found in every economic system because

Wealth inequality in the United States has grown tremendously since 1970. The United States continuously reveals higher rates of inequality as a result of perpetual support for free market capitalism. The high rates of wealth inequality cause the growing financial crisis to persist, lower socio-economic mobility, increase national poverty, and have adverse effects on health and well being.

The essay Addiction in the Free Market by Bruce K. Alexander and Stefa Shaler argues that the free market leads to mass addiction because it universally dislocates their members. The purpose of this essay is to persuade the reader that there is a connection between the development of addiction and the free market. Ultimately the free market is an unhealthy system that only benefits politicians and free market leaders. It should be replaced for a system where each members support and protect each other.

A free market is a type of market that the government is not involved in. Since the government does not care about what happens, the free market is also called “hands-off” or “let it be economics”. The government is limited to protect the citizens from the danger and that is the major goal for the government. In the free market economy, there are three components of the free market economy: competition, active but limited government, and the self-interest. Competition is one of the main components of the free market economy. Competition means that the companies compete with one another to make more benefits to themselves. According to the concept of the free market economy, the competition means a good thing because it is a basic

Cavanaugh’s book is made up of four chapters that focus on negative and positive topics namely: Freedom and Unfreedom, Detachment and Attachment, The Global and the Local, Scarcity and Abundance. The writer begins the book by asking the question “When is a market free?” The market can only be free if the transaction is fair and both parties equally benefit from the purchase or trade. It is also then said that state authority is required to keep the middle man from interfering, because “freedom in itself is pursuing whatever you want without interference from others”.(Kindle Location 104 of

Dr. Martian Luther King Jr. once said, “And one day we must ask that question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America?’ and when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, and a broader system of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalist economy.” In other words that the capitalist economy is the reason why there are so many poor people, and the people who are struggling to get by not knowing if they are going to have a home next month or not. Since we have this class system it puts people in that state of mind where they become a slave just to work as hard, and never make it to where they want to be in life. Furthermore

The distribution of wealth has been a major problem in modern society. The economic system is currently dividing the nation into a society of either being classified as rich or poor. The current system is causing individuals to consume more than what the Earth’s surface can reproduce. Furthermore, the allocation of goods and services are not fairly distributed worldwide. People are supposed to live as one and share goods and services equitably, but because of capitalism, many individuals live a life of self-interest and greed.

“The population of unemployed and underemployed explodes. There is a vicious circle here. Because so many seek work, wages are very low. Because one wage cannot support even a small family, more and more family members must seek employment. This move adds to the pool of labor and further depresses wages.” (Syracuse U. Press) Further, if wages begin to rise in one country, other countries seize the opportunity and lower their wages even further. With this cycle of falling wages and more and more people needing jobs, poverty increases drastically. With wages so low, the owners of these large companies get richer and richer—the vast majority of wealth in a country becomes concentrated in one small group of people. While this is good for those few, the vast majority of citizens are shorthanded. Capitalism is an excellent system for the elite and for increasing efficiency, but as far as providing for the needs of all of its citizens, it falls short. Thus, capitalism is a system that causes and perpetuates poverty, and exploits its lower class.

Free markets have often been idealized in the US, and have become a dominant tool for trade and distribution of goods and services. There have been multiple waves of government regulation and deregulation of the market in US history. Each of these trends have been grappling with the central question of how sufficient markets are at satisfying our goals. In theory, free markets are fair and efficient at distributing goods and services. In reality, however, government must intervene in the marketplace for two overarching reasons. First, because in practice free markets left to themselves are not always fair and efficient. And second, because fairness and efficiency are not our only goals and

Unfortunately some people do not have the ability to earn a living in a market economy. Others benefit from inherited wealth, hard dedicating work, or owning their business. Governments in market economies inevitably engage in programs that redistribute income, and they often do so with the overt intention of making tax policies. On the other hand, advocates of extensive redistribution disagree and allege that role of government limits the concentration of wealth and maintains a wider diffusion of economic power among households, presently as antitrust laws are designed to maintain competition and a wider diffusion of power and resources among producers. Those who oppose major redistribution programs counter that additional taxes on high-income families decrease the incentives

The fact that free markets are based on a contractual agreement between the buyer and seller with very little government control makes it feasible to consider it to be compatible with individual freedom. (Free Market: 2014) Classical liberals may agree with the objectives of free markets, as they emphasise the importance of individual freedom with limited control of the state. (Hagopian)The counter argument is that when the free market economy is fuelled by profit motives, it sacrifices some ethical and economic issues which can cause severe consequences. (Gerald Hanks: 2014) Modern Liberals argue that although individual freedom is important, coercion can be used as a positive outlook of bettering individuals to the best of their ability.