CHAPTER 5

A Model of Justice

What, then, is justice, why do we get angry about injustice, and what is it that makes a social or economic arrangement unfair?

Uncovering a Traditional Model

In 1987, after presenting my first paper on fair withdrawal benefits from pension funds, I proposed a motion at the annual meeting of the Actuarial Society of South Africa that it set up a committee to define fair withdrawal benefits. I found a seconder for my motion before the meeting, but was surprised to get no other support. I was told that it was not possible to define what was fair.

Some profound changes had apparently occurred since the Actuarial Society had been founded in 1948 with the motto Aequitas (Latin for justice or fairness), which was in 1987 ...

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