Work, Productivity & Pay
  • Home
  • Browse
  • About
  • Conversations
Work, Productivity and Pay

Wanjiru Njoya, PhD (Cantab.) MA (Oxon.) LLM (Hull) LLB (Nairobi) PCAP (Exeter)
​Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy

​​​

Rationality and morality

26/9/2018

0 Comments

 
We live in a post-rational world, where everyone tries to be as moral as possible and it is fashionable to boast about emotional-intelligence credentials: the ability to feel what other people are feeling. This is supported by studies in behavioural economics, which show that people are highly irrational, displacing the dry old studies of 'economic man' that sought to explain how individuals make rational choices designed to maximise their utilities. 

Read More
0 Comments

The selfishness of Adam Smith

27/7/2018

0 Comments

 
​We live in an age where it is accepted that being selfish is very very bad. Everyone should care about other people in society. You should share your toys with the other children and play nicely together.  You should put your neighbour's interests before your own. You should love your friends enough to lay down your life for them. You should be happy to pay higher taxes, so that those poorer than you can have a bit more money.

Read More
0 Comments

The platform economy

2/7/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

The platform economy is built upon new forms of work relationships created through apps and online platforms. This economy has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for those who were excluded from traditional labour markets. The internet is truly the great equalizer.

Read More
0 Comments

A thin concept of justice

24/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Adam Smith's theory of justice seems sketchy and anaemic to modern eyes. It is often described as 'thin' because it included only three rules of justice that must be guaranteed by law: 
  • Life 
  • Property 
  • Personal rights
 “What about inequality and social justice?!” the people cry. In this age of Affluence and Consumerism, surely any theory of justice must include everyone's right to have an equal amount of stuff and equal access to all the good things in life, so that it’s fair?
​

Read More
0 Comments

Adam Smith’s liberalism

23/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
These days it seems that most people align themselves with either the political left or the political right. This rigid and simplistic dichotomy creates a lot of confusion as people try to dig up all the philosophers from ages past with the aim of classifying them as either left or right within the modern political lexicon. Hence the epic battle for Adam Smith’s legacy. If Adam Smith still walked the earth, would he be a left-leaning liberal or a right-leaning liberal? Is Smith's natural liberalism leftish or rightish? Does his defence of freedom mean that he was conservative? Does his defence of the poor mean that he was socialist?

Read More
0 Comments

The morality of capitalism

28/3/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

Capitalism, as defined by Milton Friedman in Capitalism and Freedom, refers to 'the organization of the bulk of economic activity through private enterprise operating in a free market...a system of economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom.' Friedman thus defends capitalism not for its own sake, nor even for its capacity to create wealth, but because of its association with individual, economic, and political freedom. 

Read More
0 Comments

Law and Efficiency

26/2/2018

0 Comments

 
The normative foundations of law are sometimes rooted in economic efficiency and other times rooted in social justice concerns. How do these normative foundations vary, and are the variations justifiable? 

Read More
0 Comments

Private Property and Justice

25/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Private property is often criticised for failing to promote equality: with private property rights, some people inevitably end up with more than others. Is this unjust, on grounds that economic “equality” is an essential component of justice? We know that justice is a good thing (nobody would argue that injustice is an admirable goal to aspire to) but does it follow logically that the full force of the law should be harnessed to equalize everything? Equal amounts of stuff, equal pay for all working people especially if they're women, equal benefits for all unworking people and equal opportunities for all to have an equally good life. Everything should be equally distributed. Because otherwise it’s not fair. 

Read More
0 Comments

The welfare state

27/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Capitalist free markets do not generally create a situation where everyone has the same amount of stuff. Sadly, progress tends to yield unequal outcomes. Enter the welfare state, a creature of most modern capitalist economies. The idea is that taxes will be collected to create a repository of public funds to provide a safety-net for the poorest and most vulnerable in society. Thus the welfare state would be expected to meet the costs of  unemployment insurance and pensions for those who found themselves cast on the heap when the company they worked for goes bust.

Read More
0 Comments

Milton Friedman

3/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Proponents of economic equality push forward vague notions that people should have more or less the same amount of stuff, and nobody should have much more stuff than other people because It Feels Very Unfair when some are so rich while others are so poor. That is not a very sophisticated way to understand economic life. What's the relevance of comparing how much one person has, to how much another person has? Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom (great book, google it) challenges us to think a bit more intelligently about the meaning of 'equality' in the context of a market economy. If we are to translate the ideals of equality into reality we'll need a conceptual framework that's a bit more sophisticated than 'everyone having the same amount of stuff' or 'paying everyone the same wage'. 

Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Wanjiru Njoya

    Scholar, Writer, Friend

    Archives

    May 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    July 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017

    Categories

    All
    Academic
    Capitalism
    Income Inequality
    Liberty
    Redistribution

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2015
Photos used under Creative Commons from stefan.erschwendner, Sustainable Economies Law Center, erikaow, trendingtopics, Sustainable Economies Law Center, musee de l'horlogerie, Sustainable Economies Law Center, tracie7779, Michela Simoncini, cliff1066™, topten5, thedailyenglishshow, symphony of love, wuestenigel, uncafelitoalasonce, symphony of love, CarlH_
  • Home
  • Browse
  • About
  • Conversations