The lover of Justice, as I interpret it, correlates with what I see as the perfectly natural role and agenda of government: a fair distribution of power. And mind you, this does not mean an equal distribution. It simply means that those with lesser power always have a means of taking care of their interests. This becomes especially apparent as concerns the American government’s relationship with Capitalism in that, were it functioning as it should, it would be acting as check and balance to corporate power. It would be filling in the gaps that the market leaves.
Of course, some lovers of courage (being the domain of Ayn Rand’s nonsense (would have you believe that this must automatically lead to some kind of egalitarian arrangement. But few people want to strip the rich of their assets and distribute BMWs in the inner cities. It’s not about what people want as much as what they need: food, shelter, and healthcare. And here is where I become a social democrat left of Bernie in that, while I support increasing the minimum wage as a short term solution, I see simply giving people more as little more than a short term solution. This is why the recent republican tax plan will fail (a sugar high that will eventually result in a crash). It’s not just a matter of how much money we make but how much everything costs as well. And eventually, no matter how much space you give people, inflation (via wage push and wage pull (will fill it in. The only way the republican tax plan could continue to benefit average Americans is by continually reducing taxes until they’re paying nothing. And how would that work but by either increasing taxes on the rich or eliminating government altogether (thereby leaving us subject to aristocracy of the rich (or taxing the rich more which the republicans are constitutionally incapable of doing?
But I digress. Under the lover of justice’s fair distribution of power, there would be an expansion of the public economy without concerns for CEO bonuses or shareholder concerns. In other words, the idea would be to take profit seeking behaviors out those areas where the market fails to perform as promised. A public option on healthcare would be a good start on this. An expansion of public transportation that would make us less dependent on often budget busting private transportation would be another. It could even involve better city planning in which affordable housing is provided close to major centers of employment and resource providers: keeping one’s job and Walmart within walking distance.
In short, a lover of justice’s fair distribution of power would consist of eliminating our complete dependence on the market. It would give us the freedom of choice that living in a free country implies.