Bryan Caplan’s next big project is entitled Poverty: Who to Blame, a cornerstone topic of which will be “moral blameworthiness“. Caplan discusses the concept in short in a recent exchange with Robin Hanson:
Unlike Robin, I should add, I’m a big believer in moral blameworthiness. Whether we’re discussing poverty or involuntary celibacy, I think we should always start by investigating whether the sufferer is culpable for his own woes. And empirically, I think the sufferer usually is highly culpable…At the same time, though, I freely admit that a sizable minority of people suffer blamelessly. A severe congenital handicap could easily lead to both severe poverty and isolation despite exemplary behavior. Should government do anything about this? I don’t know…
This analysis, and the forthcoming book, relies on deontological moral philosophy that is pretty alien to economic analysis, which almost presoposes consequentialism. While Caplan would reply that even the most…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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