Nam Presents Luck Egalitarian Redistribution: What Should We Do About Addiction? Today At Northwestern

Jeesoo Nam (USC; Google Scholar) presents Luck Egalitarian Redistribution: What Should We Do About Addiction? at Northwestern today as part of its Advanced Topics in Taxation Colloquium hosted by Ari Glogower:

Suffering from substance use disorder is a material disadvantage. Drug addiction is the cause of many serious harms, often harms to the addicted person.

But when it comes to the issue of redistributing benefits and burdens in our society, many think that the disadvantage of being addicted requires no corrective redistribution because addicted people brought that disadvantage on themselves by choosing to use recreational drugs. Those who hold this view might prefer that redistributive welfare benefits that we ordinarily give to the less fortunate be withheld from drug users.

Is that view right?

This Article investigates whether distributive justice obligates the government to help those who have been harmed by their own addiction. I will argue that the government must correct for some harms of addiction through redistribution.