The principle of justice—one that has been widely accepted since it was first defined by Aristotle more than two thousand years ago—is the principle that treated the same, unless they differ in ways that are relevant to the situation in which they are involved both do the same work, and there are no relevant differences between them or the work they are doing, then in justice they should be paid the same wages. because he is a man, or because he is white, then we have an injustice a form of discrimination because race and sex are not relevant to normal work situations.
There are, however, many differences that we deem as justifiable criteria for treating people differently. we think it is fair and just when a parent gives his own children more attention and care in his private affairs than he gives the children of others; we think it is fair when the person who is first in a line at a theater is given first choice of theater tickets; we think it is just when the government gives benefits to the needy that it does not provide to more affluent citizens; we think it is just when some who have done wrong are given punishments that are not meted out to others who have done nothing wrong; and we think it is fair when those who exert more efforts or who make a greater contribution to a project receive more benefits from the project than others. These criteria need, desert, contribution, and effort we acknowledge as justifying differential treatment, then, are numerous.
On the other hand, there are also criteria that we believe are not justifiable grounds for giving people different treatment. In the world of work, for example, we generally hold that it is unjust to give individuals special treatment on the basis of age, sex, race, or their religious preferences. If the judge's nephew receives a suspended sentence for armed robbery when another offender unrelated to the judge goes to jail for the same crime, or the brother of the Director of Public Works gets the million dollar contract to install sprinklers on the municipal golf course despite lower bids from other contractors, we say that it's unfair. We also believe it isn't fair when a person is punished for something over which he or she had no control, or isn't compensated for a harm he or she suffered. And the people involved in the "brown lung hearings" felt that it wasn't fair that some diseases were provided with disability compensation, while other similar diseases weren't.
