So imagine that thought experiment applied here. Veiled in ignorance, you have the option of signing either of two social contracts. You can accept the revamped version, America 2, with the clause guaranteeing your household a six-figure income and nearly a million dollars in wealth. Or you can sign our actual current circa-1980 social contract, obliging you to be a random American with a one-in-five chance of making out financially as well or better as you would in America 2 but with a four-in-five chance of doing worse, including a serious possibility of being impoverished forever—but in
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