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We examine factors that might limit people’s ability to claim unowned resources for themselves, and which might also affect the moral acceptability of someone attempting to claim these resources.

We examine factors that might limit people’s ability to claim unowned resources for themselves, and which might also affect the moral acceptability of someone attempting to claim these resources.

Do people want a big piece of a small pie, or a small piece of a huge pie? Societies differ based on how equally wealth may be distributed over population categories. Rhetoric takes advantage of this with one often cited example being that "1% of the population control X% of a society's wealth". This is often used to compare between societies, for example, one society may have it so that the top 1% of the population controls 45% of the wealth, while in another, the top 1% of the population may control 22%. What these simple comparisons miss however is the total wealth available in both societies. If both countries were equally wealthy overall, one may prefer to the live in the second, more equal society. However, if the more unequal society had an economy 200 times the size of the more equal one, a person might be better off accepting a smaller piece of that much larger pie. We are looking to introduce total economy size as a variable people may use to evaluate which societies they judge to be most desirable.

Do people want a big piece of a small pie, or a small piece of a huge pie? Societies differ based on how equally wealth may be distributed over population categories. Rhetoric takes advantage of this with one often cited example being that "1% of the population control X% of a society's wealth". This is often used to compare between societies, for example, one society may have it so that the top 1% of the population controls 45% of the wealth, while in another, the top 1% of the population may control 22%. What these simple comparisons miss however is the total wealth available in both societies. If both countries were equally wealthy overall, one may prefer to the live in the second, more equal society. However, if the more unequal society had an economy 200 times the size of the more equal one, a person might be better off accepting a smaller piece of that much larger pie. We are looking to introduce total economy size as a variable people may use to evaluate which societies they judge to be most desirable.

Do people want a big piece of a small pie, or a small piece of a huge pie? Societies differ based on how equally wealth may be distributed over population categories. Rhetoric takes advantage of this with one often cited example being that "1% of the population control X% of a society's wealth". This is often used to compare between societies, for example, one society may have it so that the top 1% of the population controls 45% of the wealth, while in another, the top 1% of the population may control 22%. What these simple comparisons miss however is the total wealth available in both societies. If both countries were equally wealthy overall, one may prefer to the live in the second, more equal society. However, if the more unequal society had an economy 200 times the size of the more equal one, a person might be better off accepting a smaller piece of that much larger pie. We are looking to introduce total economy size as a variable people may use to evaluate which societies they judge to be most desirable.