“Social justice”
“Social justice” is a phrase I don’t understand. As in, I literally don’t understand what people are saying when they call for social justice. I think this is because it doesn’t mean anything, but I could be wrong. Take, for example, Ezra Klein’s blog post today about obesity and race:
But at its base, obesity is one of the most important social justice issues in America today. Just as the wage gap matters, and the disparities in health-care coverage matter, so too does the disparity in health matter, particularly when the primary culprits are diseases like obesity and diabetes that we know — know — are related to the environments we live in and the choices we have.*
Then there was Matt Yglesias making another appeal to “social justice,” this time with regard to pay for banking executives he deems to be unfair:
Banks are profiting massively from ultra-low interest rates, but making such rates available serves the general interest. Banks are also profiting massively from implicit federal government guarantees. … I think this is primarily an issue of social justice rather than an issue of technocratic regulation. And the answer is higher taxes on extremely high-earning individuals. … You need to tax these guys and use the money to finance more and better social services and jobs for the people who provide the social services.
I just have a hard time understanding the phrase “justice” as to mean “forcible transfer of wealth from people who work to people who do not by threat of violence and imprisonment” or … well, I’m not even sure what Ezra’s suggestion is. Shut down fast food joints because poor people can’t control themselves? Force grocery stores to open chains in inner city areas and give away their goods to people who can’t afford them? What, exactly is he calling for?
Do they just use the word “social justice” to mean “progressive policies” because it sounds better?
*The locution “the choices we have” is an interesting one. It removes any agency from the person making the choices. So it’s not a poor person’s fault that they choose to stuff their face with fatty, unhealthy foods. Rather, it’s society’s fault for not giving him any options other than fatty, unhealthy foods. It’s a nice rhetorical trick, but a pretty GD paternalistic one, if you ask me.