ABSTRACT
Social Security is sometimes described as the most successful of all government redistribution programs; given its longevity, its general acceptance among the public, and the actual relief it provides to aged and handicapped individuals, that seems to be the case. A large college financial aid system exists by which the state and principally the federal government assist students and their families to afford a secondary education they otherwise could not afford. The existence of natural right is largely neglected as a legitimate theory by which to assess and enact justice in America, the facts on the ground indicate that in a formal, structural sense, morality is becoming less and less a criterion or an element of people's social and political life. The claims on individuals to pay taxes, fulfill military duty, respect the state's laws, and obey parents are things people experience as morally right and as irreducible to self-interest.
