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Full Idea
If social institutions were to have a first virtue, …prosperity would be a much stronger candidate that justice.
Gist of Idea
Prosperity is a higher social virtue than justice
Source
John Kekes (Against Liberalism [1997], 06.3)
Book Ref
Kekes,John: 'Against Liberalism' [Cornell 1997], p.128
A Reaction
Kekes occasionally pays lip service to ecological issues, but this shows he is not serious. Endless economic growth will kill our planet, so it should never be our prime virtue. Also the impplication that you can't be too prosperous is plainly false.