Distributive Justice in the U.S.

When I first encountered Aristotle's idea of distributive justice, I believed that I had found a theory that lined up directly with my own. I have always believed that merit and wealth should be proportionate to one another. While I used to believe that this was, for the most part, the case in the U.S., my views have certainly changed in the past few years. I recognize that while some would argue that there is a strong form of distributive justice in the U.S., my faith in the system seems to diminish as I gain more knowledge of both the U.S. system as well as systems of the past.

The idea of distributive justice is wonderful, at least in my own views, and here lies one of the major hindrances to its realization. While some like myself do not desire to have wealth beyond their wildest dreams, there are still a great many who do. So if these individuals seek great wealth, and many achieve it, there must be those who have very little wealth, and thus less merit? While some of the impoverished individuals certainly may have less merit, there are those that are poor who if given the opportunity would certainly "merit" more wealth. What of those individuals that must drop out of school in order to support their four younger siblings and mother? Do we encourage this individual to leave his family behind in order to "merit" greater wealth? Is there virtue in leaving behind children, brothers and sisters, to attain higher education? We praise those who overcome seemingly impossible circumstances to achieve what is considered success, but forget about far greater number of individuals who are not able to overcome the impossible.

Meanwhile, there are those individuals who inherit everything they will ever need. Most, like myself, must work to attain a fair amount of wealth. But this does not mean that I did not have my opportunities laid out for me from birth. I have was given a great education, as well as the time to excel by my parents. I did not have to work in high school, and never had to worry about feeding my younger brother. So how does one balance between the millions of individuals and their differing levels of merit?

Now allow rectificatory justice to step in. The rectificatory justice idea is supposed to correct unbalance, which based on humanity's track record is sure to occur. But really, this form of justice is designed for criminality and immoral action. I do not see in it an ability to correct the injustice that faces many of the impoverished individuals in the U.S.

But one of the reasons that the U.S. is able to be a leader in innovation, technology, and wealth, is the ability of individuals to attain a much greater wealth than they merit. But I will admit that I have begun to doubt in the value of a great deal of the "innovation" made possible by the unbalance of wealth. Such a great deal of wealth goes into making lives more comfortable...for the wealthy! This is not to say that there is certainly a large amount of wealth that goes toward medical research and technology that truly could change the world in a way that aids those in need, but where do we draw the line? I personally believe that until the American dream becomes less about individual wealth and glory, true distributive justice will not exist. Please enlighten me if you have more hope for the U.S. than I do.