ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that can do without the distinction between comparative and noncomparative justice, and thereby avoid the nettlesome question of how to reconcile conflicts between them. Furthermore, the economics of receipt is in one important respect preferable to the standard theory of the comparative element of justice. The standard theory posits two forms of justice—comparative and noncomparative—whereas the theory just outlined requires only the noncomparative variety. The economics of receipt relies heavily on the notion of a comparison class. Examples of comparison classes are supposed to include the students in our first case, the soldiers of the platoon in our second case, and all of humanity in the case of Judgment Day. The version of the temporal criterion for comparison class closure is implausible. Treatment at one time can bear on the justice of treatment at another time.
