Book Review: Is Social Justice Just?

Of all the catchphrases in the leftist arsenal, there are none so powerful as "social justice." Demands for a vast array of interventionist policies, from minimum wage laws to food stamps to housing subsidies and progressive taxation, are rooted in the idea that society has treated some people unfairly and therefore must be transformed. Those calls for transformation invariably entail coercive intervention by the state: government must do something. But many of the suggested interventions don't seem all that just, or they produce unintended consequences and perverse incentives. This book, edited by Robert Whaples, Michael Munger, and Christopher Coyne, takes those problems seriously. What, precisely, is social justice? Can we achieve it without damaging our social and economic foundations? Those are the big questions addressed in the book, with 19 well- chosen essays. The main takeaway is that looking to government for the realization of social justice is a mistake. If you are genuinely concerned about the lives of the poor, the writers gathered here do their best to persuade you that government intervention is not the answer.