“If You Don’t Like It, Leave It”

Abstract

The leverage the most fortunate possess to extract a favourable deal for themselves in hypothetical social contractarian bargains depends on what exit options they are endowed with. Social contractarian arguments typically enlarge their exit options by suppressing many of the social constraints on exit they would face in the real world. The result is to greatly increase the share of the joint surplus that the most fortunate can extract in the hypothetical bargain. Suppressing naturally arising social constraints on exit is inconsistent with the parsimonious view of our collective responsibility to the least fortunate that animates social contractarianism to begin with.