General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "Would people work if they didn't have to?" [View all]yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.
A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.
For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others.
It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many.
Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.
― John Rawls, A Theory of Justice