Joerg Tremmel, Intergenerational justice and poverty

22 marzo, ore 16.00, Webex

The interactions between intergenerational justice and  intragenerational poverty are a complex topic at the interface of  philosophy, politics, economics and law. In the background are partly  empirical questions: Does inequality increase automatically when there  is general social progress? If so, can this growing inequality be  dampened with vigorous countermeasures, and what would have to be done  to achieve this? Or, if growing general progress and growing  inequality inevitably go hand in hand, should we dispense with general  progress altogether? This last question is answered in the negative in  the talk. Instead, a morally legitimate way is shown how growing  inequality could be countered primarily through a change in the  framework conditions and only secondarily through inheritance and gift  taxes. It should become a social norm  that large inheritances,  especially in the case of business assets, are transferred by  testators to charitable foundations.