In “What Do We Deserve?”, Namit Arora considers the problems that emerge when we confuse economic and social outcomes with merit or worth; in other words, when we assume that economic or social outcomes equate to “moral desert” (59). Such misperceptions are an outcome of stories of social mobility that are central to American culture, and Arora argues that resisting these misperceptions requires “telling new kinds of stories” (59).
Locate a story of economic justice and analyze it in order to discover the lessons in fairness and deserving that it imparts. Write an essay in which you make an argument about the this story and how it relates to libertarianism, meritocracy or egalitarianism, and the merits/flaws with that system. Your example could be factual or fictional. Your essay should apply specific ideas and quotes from Arora as a lens to help you analyze your selected example and what it tells us about economic justice and fairness. You will need at least three sources, minimum one for the story and two backing up claims with facts.
