Michael Capobianco

November 2, 2011

Philosophy 108 Moral and Social Problems

Essay Topic #3-Distributive Justice

“Unjustified Wealth”

By: Michael Capobianco

Michael Capobianco

Philosophy 108

November 2, 2011

Unjustified Wealth

In many ways it seems unjust about how wealth and money are distributed in modern America, but there are many cases in which people with excess money have to earn every penny with hard work. In certain cases, people are born with certain talents and abilities that supply vast opportunities of which others may not have. A prime example of this would be Alex Rodriguez, who is considered one of the most talented and highly paid baseball players in the Major Leagues. Due to his talents on the baseball field, Alex Rodriguez is currently making 27.5 million dollars a year to play the sport he was born to play. The public views Alex Rodriguez as an idol for everyone who strives to be the best at what they do. As a college baseball player at Umass Boston I have seen some of the hardest working athletes imaginable, but for most of them being as successful as Alex Rodriguez is completely unreachable. Each and every one of us is born different with different talents and abilities, and the best we can do is maximize our potential. The only way to accomplish this is with hard work. Every person is created different and will have more potential at certain things, which is why I feel that money should solely be earned on the hard work they put into their career. This also includes the hard work endured in order to achieve this career and maximizing your potential.
While we put Alex Rodriguez on a pedestal that resembles God, we forget the people who work each and every day to keep our society functioning correctly. Without the men and women who are teachers, we would have nobody to learn from. At this poi nt in the American culture if you cannot hit a baseball 500 feet then it is crucial to be an educated human being to have any type of success. In order to be educated someone has to educate us, which is why our educators enable us to achieve our goals. Successful teachers have no option but to put hard work into their career to the point of mastering their subject. Teachers have to put in the years of hard work in order to achieve their career, but somehow their income is nothing compared to an athlete who has to ability to entertain people with his talents. This aspect is affiliated with the Difference Principle created in John Rawl’s Theory of Justice. One of the main ideas of the Difference Principle is that any social and economic inequality has to be the result of an equal opportunity for everyone who it concerns. The only factor that should separate inequality of wealth is the amount of hard work put in by one over the other. This shows that it is unjust for someone like Alex Rodriguez to make such a large quantity of wealth over others because he is a prime example of someone who was gifted with the abilities and talents that many can never accomplish through infinite hard work. Personally, I feel that hard work can determine the type of person you are. Someone who puts just as much hard work into their profession as anyone else should be valued the same socially and economically. Unfortunately, is has come to the point where America has developed unjust values to the people who are the most important to our well-being and us.
There are also aspects of Rawl’s Theory of Justice that I do not agree with. For example, in his egalitarianism views he feels that all wealth between the lower, middle, and high class should be distributed evenly. I disagree in the sense that person A has worked harder to get his career than person B. Therefore the hard work exemplified by person A should pay off more than person B who did not work as hard. In many cases I feel that the extremely wealthy people deserve the excess money they possess. For example, if someone put maximum effort in high school and was successful enough to eventually graduate from Harvard as a lawyer who acquired great wealth, there is absolutely no reason why someone who coasted through high school and college from average effort should have the right to obtain the same wealth. A great real life scenario that shows why I do not believe in the egalitarianism view is a janitor compared to a teacher. It is extremely easy to argue that a janitor works just as hard as someone who teaches other, just in different ways. The difference that shows why a teacher deserves to get paid more comes from the years of college and studying needed just to be able to obtain the position as a teacher. The janitor may have to put in hours of strenuous labor, but this is originated from not taking the opportunity to maximize the janitor’s potentials in life. Since the janitor did not strive to put in the years of hard work like the teacher, there is no reason why the money obtained should be constant. When it comes down to athletes such as Alex Rodriguez, the public completely empowers him with most of him financial success. People pay large amounts of money just to go to Yankee Stadium to watch him play. His athletic ability entertains the public in the sense that a human being can be so gifted to make a sport look so graceful and easy. It is easily apparent that most of the wealthy athletes such as Alex Rodriguez in the world today would agree with Robert Nozicki’s Entitheme at Theory of Justice. This theory comes from the idea that whatever is justly acquired can be freely transferred. People will pay to go watch Alex Rodriguez’s talents, and since he owns the talents he deserves a share of the wealth. The problem I see with this is that someone with more talent than others can make such a vast income due to the publics desire for entertainment, not necessity. Professionals such as teachers are not paid based on the desire of others, but the idea in society that it is important to learn. If people based the importance of the two the same way out of necessity, the teacher will make just as much income as Alex Rodriguez. The argument that Alex Rodriguez deserves a share of the money from people who come to see him would fit into the category of the argument of self-ownership. This argument states that since it is your body, your talent gives you the right to own anything you can produce with it. This idea seems logical in many ways, but it is not just. All beings should have equal opportunity to accomplish their goals and make income off their careers. Alex Rodriguez was born as someone with the potential to exceed the talents in sports that most people cannot do. The only scenario of how I would agree with Nozicki’s theory is if all human beings were born and existed in equal form with all equal talents. Every human being is born with different skills, potentials, and abilities. The best you can do is maximizing your potential with hard work. My parents raised me to believe that the people who deserve the most are the people who work the hardest. From my experience, I have observed that it is almost impossible to be successful in modern America if you do not have a work ethic. Unfortunately, some of the hardest working professions are underappreciated to the point where they struggle to live comfortably with their yearly income. I feel that if all professions were paid based on the amount of hard work endured, modern America would be considered a much more just economical country. Our heroes are our educators because they enable us to be any profession we strive for. We need to value these educators the right way and the way it should start is with a more just paycheck. Money should solely be earned by the amount of hard work from the professional, along with the amount of hard work needed to become the profession itself.

Michael Capobianco
November 2, 2011
Works Cited garrett, Jan. "John Rawls on Justice." WKU Ethics. Minor Rev., September 3, 2011. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://www.wku.edu/~jan.garrett/ethics/johnrawl.htm