The Solidarity Solution: Principles for a Fair Income Distribution

As both the leftist political philosopher G.A. Cohen and the conservative economist Milton Friedman have pointed out, equal income is unfair to the hardworking. The ideal tax system-the one used to evaluate actual tax systems-would thus adjust taxation and redistribution for differential labor burdens. Measuring labor burdens, however, is no easy task. Some philosophers and economists attempt to sidestep the measurement problem by invoking envy-freeness. A distribution is envy-free when no one prefers someone else's bundle of goods (or bads) to her own. Yet, eliminating envy in the labor market is not always possible, and minimizing envy when it cannot be eliminated is not always fair. The Solidarity Solution provides an answer: fair labor-income bundles are those that could be justified to free and equal individuals. Part one develops the solidarity solution by showing how rigorous distributive implications can be derived from a relational ideal. Part two uses the solidarity solution to critique the competing theories of fair income distributions of Ronald Dworkin, Philippe Van Parijs, and Marc Fleurbaey. Finally, part three identifies implications for the gender wage gap and taxation