John Rawls’s difference principle critiqued
Here’s a Slate article discussing Rawl’s difference principle, i.e.: economic inequalities are justified only if they benefit the worst-off members of society.
The primary problem with this principle, and how it’s derived from the “veil of ignorance” thought experiment, is that the actors are assumed to be totally risk adverse (hence the maximin solution) and are prevented from knowing the probabilities of outcomes, so that they can’t make a choice based on expected utility. The economist John Harsanyi points this out, and comes up with his own thought experiment showing how absolute preference given to the worst-off actor lead to obviously uncomfortable results.