Foundations of economic justice

The notion of economic justice and the property rights of producers is fundamental to all economic, legal and political systems. Morris Silver's book presents a critical survey of thought in this area - including Rawls, Nozick and Buchanan - to develop a model of economic justice stressing the natural rights of producers to the objects of the production. The central argument of the book is that economic justice has an empirically determinate objective basis in individuals' feelings but that these feelings should not be identified with preferences, utility or interest. They are instead a "moral emotion" rooted in human nature. The author extends this producer ethic to the complexities of modern exchange economies and argues that exchange itself is part of the production process.