Social justice, luck, and well-being: essays on the ethics of distribution

"What distribution of resources and opportunities is fair? Richard Arneson proposes that a distribution is more fair and just, the more it brings about good lives for people, with extra weight given to gaining improvements for people who are badly off, and also to those who are more deserving. A good life is one high in well-being: There are genuine goods in life, including enjoyment, friendship and love, and achievement, and the more of these goods one attains, the better one's life is going. Each of us is morally bound, to some degree, to strive conscientiously to promote fair distribution as we understand it, and to try to improve our understanding. By conscientiously striving, coming closer to what it is reasonable to expect of us, we become more deserving. The upshot is a radically egalitarian ideal of social justice, which can provide practical guidance, as we can always seek to reduce the shortfall between the ideal and actual conditions. Some will object that implementing this doctrine would wrongly squash individual liberty, but the response is that fostering individual liberty is a supremely important means to promoting good lives for people.