Impartiality
Impartiality and Sustainability:
• -Impartiality implies equal, non-discriminatory treatment of individuals or nation states.
• Economics implicitly recognizes impartiality in its principles of convergence; i.e., that rich and poor nations will eventually converge in per capita income
Impartiality principles allow different nation states to develop at different rates according to different levels of capability. The danger is that weak nations with extensive resource wealth may be exploited in the short term rather than developing national economies with well trained work forces over the long term
• The breakdown of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 led to the collapse of the global system of fixed exchange rates, which had given developing nations flexibility in developing their national economies.
- Thus from an ethical standpoint we have not maintained the principles of impartiality in global economic development since the end of WWII
Sustainability is a principle directly relate to “sustainable development,” i.e., using natural resources so as to preserve the overall capacities of natural systems to replenish themselves. In essence we leave nature in the same condition we found it.
Sustainability thus implies obligations to future generations. Renewable resources are kept intact. Pollution and other externalities are limited
• problems of sustainability and impartiality are related. If current theories of global warming are correct, greenhouse gas emissions contribute to climate change that triggers floods in Mozambique or Bangladesh, causing significant damage to farmland.
At the same time the collapse of Bretton Woods opened the door for massive movements of short term capital around the world, usually away from third world economies that most need them.
We want to accumulate goods but are we doing this in a sustainable manner? Are we infringing upon the rights of those in...
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