Appendix B: Reward for effort and modern theories of distributive justice

A brief appendix can hardly suffice to address what is now a large modern literature on theories of distributive justice. Nor is it possible to offer a comprehensive evaluation of even the few theories addressed. This appendix only addresses some aspects of the work of some prominent social philosophers from the past fifty years which is relevant to a defense of maxim 3 (payment according to effort or the personal sacrifices one makes). In short, this appendix is a brief attempt to situate maxim 3 among more elaborate, modern, egalitarian theories of distributive justice that are well known by those who work in the field.