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    How the Sufficiency Minimum Becomes a Social Maximum

    Creator
    Widerquist, Karl
    Abstract
    This article argues that, under likely empirical conditions, sufficientarianism leads not to an easily achievable duty to maintain a social minimum but to the onerous duty of maintaining a social maximum at the sufficiency level. This happens because sufficientarians ask us to give no weight at all to small benefits for people above the sufficiency level if the alternative is to relieve the suffering of people below it. If we apply this judgment in a world where there are rare diseases and hard-to-prevent accidents that cause people to fall below the sufficiency threshold, all of our discretionary spending will have to be devoted to bringing harder and harder cases up to sufficiency. Nothing will be left for anyone to consume above the sufficiency level.
    Permanent Link
    http://hdl.handle.net/10822/713216
    External Link
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S095382081000035X
    Date Published
    2010
    Rights
    This item is currently unavailable in DigitalGeorgetown due to copyright restrictions by the publisher.
    Subject
    Well-Being; Morality; Poverty; Standard of Living; Sociology;
    Type
    Article
    Is Part Of
    Utilitas, 22(4).
    Publisher
    Cambridge University Press
    Collections
    • Qatar Faculty Scholarship
    Metadata
    Show full item record

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    Georgetown University Seal
    ©2009 - 2023 Georgetown University Library
    37th & O Streets NW
    Washington DC 20057-1174
    202.687.7385
    digitalscholarship@georgetown.edu
    Accessibility