칸트의 재산권과 분배적 정의

Abstract

A righteous society demands the extension of the well-being on all its citizens but lower taxation. This necessarily gives rise to the conflict between private ownership of property and government intervention. In this article I shall present an answer on how to solve this problem with Kant's theory of property right. I am going to analyze each one of the concepts such as “justification of acquisition of individual property right", “infringement of other's right by the acquisition of property right", “redistribution as the method of compensating infringed rights of others" and “well-being as redistribution by the means of taxation". According to Kant's theory of property right, if the process of privatization of property was justified, private possession of means of production would also be justified. However, lands are limited so the acquisition of land causes the infringement of other people's rights. Everyone has an equal right to possess land. Private possession of land causes as well an unequal effect to the distribution of wealth. That is the reason why poor people are entitled to compensation for the loss of their potential rights to natural resources which are possessed by others at the moment. Therefore, land owners are required to pay appropriate tax as compensation. The possessors of property have a duty to pay a certain amount of tax in order to fund the well-being of the society. It is the duty of government to collect tax from the rich to improve the life of the poor. This is the reason why the redistribution of wealth in terms of taxation can be justified. The benefits given for the well-being of the poor are not based on the favor of the rich, but it is the right of the poor. I believe that Kant's theory of property right proposes in this way a solution how to deal with the conflicts between liberty and right and it can also justify the validity of distributive justice.