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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Before we start I'll admit I truly believe that Obama is a socialist who does not believe in American execptionalism. I also believe if he had his way he would radically change this country. That being said I don't think he's been able to do much. But here are my questions:

What do you mean by "social justice"?

What is enough "equality"?

By what objective standard does one test "fairness"?

Love to hear the answers. [/quote]

OP, I grew up in a country that has a bona fide socialist party so it's really funny to hear people in this country call Obama a socialist. Shows that they indeed have no clue about socialism.
As far as American exceptionalism is concerned, I believe in it: this country is exceptionally dynamic, exceptionally open to outsiders, exceptionally law-abiding, exceptionally arrogant, exceptionally ignorant of outside perspectives, etc.

To answer your questions:

Social justice: how about the utilitarian definition, which is "the greatest good for the greatest number."

Enough equality: corresponds to a Gini coefficient somewhere between .25 and .4

Fairness: achieved when the marginal utility of that extra dollar that the rich person gets to keep equals the marginal utility of that dollar to the poor person to whom it could be redistributed. You could hypothetically measure the marginal rate of substitution of that dollar against leisure time for instance? So if a very wealthy person and a very poor one are told that they can each give up one minute of their leisure time for a dollar, you measure how much each is willing to give up to see how much should be redistributed from the very rich one to the poor one. It's a crude example, but you get the general idea.[/quote]

Now we're talking. As I stated in my post I believe he's socialist but due to our system of government he can't enact and fully Change our country. But he sure would love to.

The problem with that wealth distribution is that it doesn't take in to effect that wealthy person did more to achieve that monetary value than a poor person. I hear liberals saying "you can't legislate morality", well you can't legislate economic equality. [/quote]

So, to you, wealth redistribution is socialism?

Setting aside the inaccuracy of that definition, I view it more pragmatically. Commerce work best when there is a stronger middle class. Also, gross inequality will eventually lead to civil unrest, as the Occupy movement hints at. One of these days those ninnies are going to get smart and stop demonstrating against the stock exchange when they're angry at the bankers.[/quote]

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