--- title: "Justice: Who Deserves What, and Why" description: "Arguments about tax, inheritance, university places and healthcare are all arguments about what people are owed and on what grounds: need, effort, contribution, or simply being a person. Asking what r" canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/personal-and-social-development/justice-who-deserves-what-and-why-mt_umi3pKeHa1 source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/personal-and-social-development/justice-who-deserves-what-and-why-mt_umi3pKeHa1.md retrieved: 2026-09-12 --- > **Agent view.** This is the Markdown twin of the page, for tools and assistants. > When to use this site, and the call that answers each job: https://lightmysky.com/agent-instructions.md > API description (OpenAPI 3.1): https://lightmysky.com/openapi.json · Authentication: https://lightmysky.com/auth.md > Pricing: https://lightmysky.com/pricing.md · Catalog: https://lightmysky.com/llms.txt · Full catalog: https://lightmysky.com/llms-full.txt > Every machine-readable file on this domain: https://lightmysky.com/.well-known/ai-catalog.json > Ask for Markdown with `Accept: text/markdown`, a `.md` address, or `?mode=agent`. # Justice: Who Deserves What, and Why Arguments about tax, inheritance, university places and healthcare are all arguments about what people are owed and on what grounds: need, effort, contribution, or simply being a person. Asking what rules you would pick without knowing your own position is one honest way in. Subject: Personal & Social Development · Area: Ethics & Philosophy · Ages 16 to 18 Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/personal-and-social-development/justice-who-deserves-what-and-why-mt_umi3pKeHa1 ## Ready when they can - State three different bases for distributing something scarce and give a case where each seems right - Explain what changes when you have to choose the rules before knowing which position you will hold - Take one real policy and say which conception of justice it assumes ## Lesson: Who should get what, and why Justice asks who gets what and why. Three answers compete. Share by need, so the sickest gets the medicine. Share by effort, so the hardest worker earns the prize. Share equally, so everyone gets the same slice. Each sounds obvious until the cases swap. Equal medicine ignores suffering, need based prizes ignore effort, and effort based rescue ignores luck. Rawls offers one honest way in. Design the rules before you know whether you will be rich or poor, talented or not. Behind that veil of ignorance you cannot rig the game for yourself, so caution takes over. Self interest drops out, and the rules you pick look fair to everyone, not just your side. **Example.** Caution then says two things. Protect basic freedoms for all, and allow gaps only when they help the worst off, like paying surgeons more so everyone gets care. That is the difference rule. It does not demand flat equality of stuff. Every inequality must justify itself to the person at the bottom. **Tip.** Test any real policy this way. Free school meals assume need outweighs sameness, while identical fines for rich and poor assume sameness outweighs burden. Ask who counts, what counts as a good, and whether the past matters. The policy's answers reveal its theory. **Recap.** Need, effort, and equal shares compete, and the veil of ignorance tests which rule you would pick without knowing your place. ## Practice 8 questions on this page, each with its working shown. ## Needs first - [Character: The Kind of Person You Are Becoming](https://lightmysky.com/learn/personal-and-social-development/character-the-kind-of-person-you-are-becoming-mt_7GCNpcZGku) - [Ethical Frameworks and Moral Reasoning](https://lightmysky.com/learn/personal-and-social-development/ethical-frameworks-and-moral-reasoning-mt_LPYPuSaxv_) - [Systemic Inequality and Allyship](https://lightmysky.com/learn/personal-and-social-development/systemic-inequality-and-allyship-mt_oqvJJKCJXw) ## Opens up - [The Ethics of the Tools We Build](https://lightmysky.com/learn/personal-and-social-development/the-ethics-of-the-tools-we-build-mt_eZh-vIoluR)