Aristotle’s formal principle says treat like cases alike — and then says nothing about which differences count. Build a society below by dragging its inequality, the growth that inequality generates, and the history it came from. Rawls, Nozick and Sen judge the same society on three different questions, and they will disagree in front of you. Then step behind the veil and find out who you are.
1 · Build the society
Share of all product held by the top fifth
25% · flattest60% · steep
Growth that inequality generates
0 · pure transfer upward3.0 · strong incentive effect
Rawls does not object to inequality. He objects to inequality that does not lift the floor. This slider decides whether it does.
How did the holdings arise?
Conversion factors in the bottom fifth
Sen’s term for what changes how much doing and being a given income actually buys.
2 · Step behind the veil
You are about to be assigned a place in the society you just built. You do not get to know your race, sex, class, talents, health or conception of the good. Rawls says that is the only fair position from which to choose the rules.