Ethical Case and Economic Feasibility of Global Transfers

Abstract

Why are social transfers from rich to poor people conducted only within countries? Is there a case for cross-country transfers? Would the basis for such transfers lie in compensation for past injustices; current economic and political interdependence between people in rich and poor countries; or the application of the global difference principle (as the cosmopolitans would argue)? The paper sees global non-state actors as key factors in fostering some modest redistribution at the global scale.

Keywords: global redistribution, global inequality

JEL Classification: D63