Deprivation of Possibility: Implications for Socioeconomic Inequality

Edited by Abbey Hurri

Abstract

Policies proposed to narrow North America’s growing economic class divide are often accused of violating rights to personal autonomy. Redistributive practices are thought to use innocent individuals as a means to benefit others. This serves as an easy argument against socioeconomic equality policies. To avoid this personal autonomy counterargument, I suggest that society has a moral requirement to increase socioeconomic equality consistent with the belief that it is harmful to be deprived of possibilities for one’s life. By deriving three core principles from Nagel’s views on death and possibilities, and applying those principles to the discussion of socioeconomic inequality, I demonstrate that our society is failing to uphold its moral obligation to those it disadvantages.