Same story over there

Them and Us: Changing Britain, why we need a fair society

The author’s argument is that capitalism is good, but that its results are becoming increasingly unfair. Its defects can be put right by government action through taxation and public spending decisions.

The author, Will Hutton, goes to quite an amount of trouble to analyse what economic “fairness” means. He cites philosophers and psychologists. He concludes that fairness does not require equalising pay and rewards, but rather that people get their just desserts for the effort and skill they have applied, the risks they have taken and the contribution their work has made to the general welfare. If the results are not seen to be fair in this sense, he believes trust and solidarity between people will eventually break down and the economy itself will not work.