Political philosophies of Utilitarianism, Libertarianism, and Egalitarianism - Research Paper Example

Nevertheless, there are varying ethical perspectives on the roles of the government in provisions to citizens and the citizens’ own individual rights. Some of these ethical perspectives are Utilitarianism, Libertarianism, and Egalitarianism. Utilitarian perspective The fundamental doctrine of utilitarian is that people should make the society as well as they can; this can be done by making people’s lives worthwhile. A utilitarian believes that government resources should be allocated in such a way that they will have the greatest impact to most people.

Stuart Mills argued that just distribution of resources provides the maximum good to most people. Mills held that people should not just think about the utility of isolated acts but the convention of conduct, which if adopted and adhered to would capitalize on utility (Irudayam 5). According to the principle of utility, we always ought to do whatever will maximize on the total amount of happiness. For a utilitarian, a just distribution of wealth is the one that maximizes on the total amount of happiness. . s that such very unequal distribution of wealth would not maximize contentment and would not, on utilitarian grounds, be morally optimal or just (Irudayam 7).

Utilitarianism would advocate for progressive taxing based on the principle of diminishing marginal utility designed at maximizing happiness. Utilitarians believe in taxing the wealthy and giving subsidies to the underprivileged to lessen the level of income disparity and increase total happiness. However, this can only work up to a point. If the tax is excessively repulsive, it will dent incentives to work, hence, production of fewer possessions; as a result, reduce the overall happiness. Therefore, from the utilitarian perspective, the superlative solution is the one that maximizes on overall happiness and this maximal point will be achieved when the tax rates are precisely put at the point where additional gain from the redistribution would be offset by bigger losses resulting from undermining of incentive (Irudayam 9).

Libertarian response The core hypothesis of libertarianism is that persons have strong moral claim to the serene enjoyment of their own persons, as well as an accomplishment of their voluntary agreement with others. Christian Libertarians insist that the government should not be concerned with the business of redistributing any possessions. They argue that every resource distribution should be communitarian in nature, voluntary and non state sponsored. Libertarians critically object state compelled wealth redistribution since they argue that property rights are so vigorous that they do not give way to the attention that motivate demand for redistribution (Benkler 38).

To some libertarians, property rights seem to comprise the full personification of some individuals’ rights and are the only