conditional upon desert (where desert is assessed by some appropriate entry
test, say) is just. Such measures contribute to ensuring that all individuals
have a fair opportunity to become deserving. Furthermore, and more im-
portantly, there may be feasible ways of trying to form reliable judgments
about choice-based desert (Roemer 1998 ; Wolff 2003 ). The fair opportunity
view of desert-based justice, then, does provide a defensible alternative to the
conventional view. We need not jettison the notion of desert to hold that
justice requires the neutralization of unequal luck. If inequalities are to be
justly deserved, they must reflect people’s different choices, not their unequal
luck.
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