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Welcome to the Original Position simulator.
[[What is this?]]
This game is intended to walk people through the John Rawls thought experiment "Original Position". Its meant to be a means for people to think about what a just society looks like and reflect on whats wrong with society now.
[[Ok]]
The way things our right now in our society are unfair. We are gonna work on a version of society that is fair.
[[Go on]]Imagine you and a group of people are tasked with creating a just society, that is, a society based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair. In order for this group to create a just society you must imagine yourselves outside of your current position as it is now. You can hold on to certain things like your knowledge of history, ethics and things that do not tell you who or where you will end up in this new society. This will be known as the "Original Position". In the OP you will be unable to make decisions about this society based on interest, and instead will be making decisions based on your moral principles.
[[What if I like society the way it is?]]
[[Let's change some things]]Society in the USA has been wholly unequal for some time now. The richest 10% control 2/3rd of Americans net worth. 1/3rd of Americans avoid seeking out medical attention due to costs. On average Americans spent $10,000 per year on healthcare costs. These costs adversely affect the 90% of Americans who make less than 30k a year. Black and nonwhite Americans are many times more likely to arrested for drug offenses, stopped in a vehicle, serve longer sentences than White Americans for similar offenses and situations.
[[What would it be like if I entered society as it is now?]]
[[Let's change some things]] Now that you've decided to change society to be more just, lets talk about what makes a just society.
[[Let's work on Healthcare]]
[[Let's work on the Justice System]]
[[Lets work on Affordable Housing]]You have multiple potential outcomes as you will be entering society randomly. I'll give you four example outcomes you can go through and then decide if keeping things the same is what you want to do. I will make these examples specific to areas of the society that may or may not need work.
[[Healthcare|Healthcare Option]]
[[The Justice System|Justice System Option]]
[[Affordable Housing|Affordable Housing Option]]
[[Alternate Option]]
You are diagnosed with leukemia at age 14. The disease had gone into remission, but following a relapse and a subsequent bone-marrow transplant, your liver failed due to a blood-clotting complication. You die at 17, mere hours after your insurance company announced that it would cover a liver transplant, which it had previously rejected as being "experimental, investigational, and unproven." Your family, claiming the company had wrongfully denied coverage for the transplant, sued your insurance company for damages, but in 2009 a federal court threw out the lawsuit.
[[Let me see the other options|What would it be like if I entered society as it is now?]]
[[Let's change some things]]
You are a black freshman football player at a High School. When leaving a house party over the weekend you are fatally shot by police. The police officers assert that you and your companions had backed down the driveway “in an aggressive manner” towards them. It turns out that the car was fired on without provocation. The officer who shot you has been placed on administrative leave.
[[Let me see the other options|What would it be like if I entered society as it is now?]]
[[Let's change some things]] You live in a one-bedroom apartment in Southeast Washington, D.C., with your 9-year-old and 2-year-old daughters. You've stopped paying your rent last September because your apartment is in horrible condition. The lack of affordable housing is forcing you to choose between apartments you can't afford or those that aren't in the best shape. The apartment is crowded for three people. In the living room, there's a bed with a bright pink comforter. The building is more than 50 years old. The baseboard heaters are falling away from the wall, although they're warm to the touch. You and your daughters also had a bedbug infestation last year, which makes paying $727 a month in rent seem like an insult. You take the landlord to court but they don't show up. You had already taken off work, losing a whole day's pay.
[[Let me see the other options|What would it be like if I entered society as it is now?]]
[[Let's change some things]] You are a 24 year old white male. You are able to get through College without any debt thanks to your parents. You find a job easily because your dad is business contacts with the company. You have a promising career with not a lot of problems to deal with in the forseeable future.
[[Let me see the other options|What would it be like if I entered society as it is now?]]
[[Let's change some things]] Would you want to lower costs of health care in the US if more people would have access to healthcare and less people would be forced to used expensive options like ERs and Urgent Care.
[[Yes|Yes to healthcare]]
[[No|No to healthcare]]
Would you want to live in a society that focuses on communities instead of incarceration?
Would you want to make the Justice system stop being biased by targeting non-white americans with unjust treatment?
[[Yes|Yes to Justice]]
[[No|No to Justice]]
Would you want to live in a society that makes housing afforable for all citizens?
Would you want to live in a society where a family can afford a two bedroom apartment without paying more than 30% of their income even if they make minimum wage?
[[Yes|Yes to Housing]]
[[No|No to Housing]]
Giving everyone access to a basic human right like healthcare and affordable insurance not only benefits you individually but society as a whole. When costs are brought down by everyone having health insurance society benefits the most.
[[Let's work on the Justice System]]
[[Lets work on Affordable Housing]]
[[Let me see what saying no looked like|No to healthcare]]
[[Ok, I've seen enough|Conclusion]]
If you don't change the system before entering it you will have unfavorable odds.
Like a 1/10 Chance of ending up uninsured. 1/20 chance of ending up unemployed. 1/2 chance of having a chronic illness. If you randomly enter society how it is you will like be in one of the circumstances and having access to healthcare could mean life or death.
[[Let's work on the Justice System]]
[[Lets work on Affordable Housing]]
[[Let me see what saying yes would look like|Yes to healthcare]]
[[Ok, I've seen enough|Conclusion]]Making the justice system fair for people of different races and ethnicities means a more just society for all people in society. It means getting rid of for profit prisons and focusing on restorative justice and not putting people in prison and trying to keep them there.
[[Let's work on Healthcare]]
[[Lets work on Affordable Housing]]
[[Let me see what saying no looked like|No to Justice]]
[[Ok, I've seen enough|Conclusion]]
If you don't change the system before entering it you will have unfavorable odds.
You have a 1/110 Chance of being incarcerated. If you are a African American man in the US you have a 1/3 chance of being incarcerated. If you go to prison you have a 3/4 chance of going back to prison within 5 years.
[[Let's work on Healthcare]]
[[Lets work on Affordable Housing]]
[[Let me see what saying yes would look like|Yes to Justice]]
[[Ok, I've seen enough|Conclusion]]Making housing afforable for all citizens helps education outcomes for low-income families. It also reduces exposure to environmental hazrds so families can free up resources to pay for health expenses and food.
[[Let's work on Healthcare]]
[[Let's work on the Justice System]]
[[Let me see what saying no looked like|No to Housing]]
[[Ok, I've seen enough|Conclusion]]A family with one full-time worker earning the minimum wage cannot afford the local fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States.
12 million Americans pay more than 50% of their wages for housing while the HUD says paying 30% of your income for housing make you considered cost burdened.
In no state can a minimum wage worker afford a ONE-BEDROOM rental unit at Fair Market Rent, working a standard 40-hour work week, without paying
more than 30% of their income.
In 2013, 3.3 million Americans worked at an hourly rate at or below the federal minimum of $7.25
[[Let's work on Healthcare]]
[[Let's work on the Justice System]]
[[Let me see what saying yes would look like|Yes to Housing]]
[[Ok, I've seen enough|Conclusion]]You've done it. You've either accepted the way the system is currently or realized what changes the system needs to make it more just (morally right and fair). Now what is the point of this you might have been asking this whole time. The point is to facilitate the conversation about our current society in a way that avoids focusing on details that deter from fixing the problems. The point is to recognize what is wrong in our society now and how we can fix it.
Thanks for playing.
Here are a list of possible sources used for statistics and more resources on John Rawls "Original Position"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3gWGtf_w_s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-JQ17X6VNg
https://www.attn.com/stories/4920/united-states-minimum-wage-and-rent
http://healthcare.procon.org/
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/crime/302015-10-ways-to-put-justice-back-in-the-criminal-justice-system
http://eyeonhousing.org/2014/10/new-study-highlights-benefits-of-the-affordable-housing-credit/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-JQ17X6VNg
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/undisputed-facts-minimum-wage/
https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2016/home.htm
http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/OOR2015_Min-Wage-Map.pdf
https://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/comm_planning/affordablehousing/
http://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/
https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/health-insurance.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/
https://costprojections.cancer.gov/annual.costs.html
https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=17
http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/17-fascinating-statistics-on-the-current-state-of-us-healthcare-spending-finances.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance_coverage_in_the_United_States
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-257.pdf
http://www.cancertodaymag.org/SUmmer2015/Pages/The-Cost-of-Cancer-Debt-Resources-Help.aspx?Page=1
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-average-out-of-pocket-costs-for-cancer-patients-can-be-catastrophic-regardless-of-health-care-coverage-2016-11
https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm