The Solidarity Solution

In this book Kristi A. Olson addresses the question of fair labor income distribution by proposing the solidarity solution, a new test she defines and defends as an answer. She examines existing traditions in analytic philosophy and formal reasoning, including the work of economists Kohn and Varian and philosophers Dworkin and Van Parijs, and creatively applies these thought experiments to distributive philosophy. Building specifically on the envy test, which states that envy-freeness is achieved when no one prefers someone else's circumstances to their own, she develops her own solidarity solution: fair labor-income bundles must be impersonal envy-free and derived from a relational ideal. She also relates the solidarity solution to concrete problems such as the gender wage gap and taxation.