What Does Justice Mean to You

To me Justice means that people want equality. In the past five years, the U.S. has really struggled with this concept of equality. The first thing that comes to mind is black lives matter. There were many rallies on streets of neighborhoods, highways, and even grocery stores wanting justice. With many different races being shot or mistreated for normally not doing anything harmful, I would want justice too, being on the other end of the spectrum. I’m all about treating people fairly. Black or white, 22 years old or 58 years old, rich or poor, I believe everyone should be looked at the same but that’s not the culture we live in today. We judge people off of what clothes and shoes they wear. I think it’s really sad. Someone could be a great person on the inside and wear really poor clothing and get hated on just because of his outside appearance. I’m a believer of Christ and the concept that Jesus preaches throughout the whole bible is to love one another. Granted, it’s really hard to do that, but you can still treat people with respect and love on your neighbor that is different from you. People’s reactions to situation always turn negative and brings up other problems that lead to worse things. The shift in culture just from the 90’s to today has been significant. People are getting more sensitive to more situations that cause the divide in the nation.

The most convincing justice theory is the entitlement theory. People are very selfish when it comes to their own goods. Just because you earn all of your goods that you have, doesn’t mean you have to be consumed in them. If you have done nothing wrong to anyone and have worked your whole life for your goods and things that make you happy, then that’s great. Hard work always pays off in the end and you should be able to spend your money anyway you want it. Having justice is having a right to your own money and spending it how you want to. Even when people have little to no money compared to you, your rights say you don’t have to help them if you don’t want too.

When you put effort into something like fixing your own backyards landscaping, you are entitled to that. You are entitled to that because you put that work in and you feel you should get a reward and ownership to the landscaping. Once you invest in something, I believe everyone is entitled to that certain thing they invested in. All of us human beings are selfish in some sort of way, but entitlement is a degree higher than just being selfish. When coming to justice, I think entitlement is the best theory to compare it too. When wanting justice, doesn’t that mean you need to stick up for your rights and beliefs? Being the most entitled will definitely help you when proposing your justice that you want. The biggest thing Americans especially are entitled to is money. As much as I don’t like to say it, money runs the world whether you like it or not. The United States is known as the place, “The American Dream”. Come and live in the United States, get rich, and spend your money on things you enjoy doing. We get so caught up in working that sometimes we forget to simply live life.

The United States is far from an economically just society. I believe I heard the other day that we are 19 billion dollars in debt. The balance of money distributed throughout the country is just unfair. A couple of years ago back to my freshman year in college in economics class, they told us that 5-10% of the population is richer than the rest of the 90-95% percentile. No one could say we are an economically just society when there is still so much poverty. I think this comes with entitlement with the rich and the top 10% of our country. Why don’t people give back to make the country better? Why can’t those entitled help those kids that have no home, that family that can’t afford food for the week, or give towards a foundation that provides clean water in Africa. When the hurricane hit Texas and Louisiana last year, there were many football players with millions of dollars that gave toward the funding of money to help clean up and help families that lost everything. That’s the opposite of entitlement because they are giving up their own money they worked for. I think more of the rich should act on this and be like them. You don’t have to be a celebrity to make a difference in the world. In the end, the U.S. is not an economically just society. I don’t know if we ever will be in my lifetime, but time will tell.

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