ABSTRACT
There are different views that purport to explain the wrongness of discrimination. An influential strategy appeals to some objectionable mental states of those who discriminate. This chapter concentrates on arguments where desert plays an important role in explaining why discrimination is wrong. The concept of desert usually consists in a relation among three elements: an agent, a treatment or good that is deserved, and the basis on which the agent is deserving. The chapter outlines the 'economic desert' argument and its relation to discrimination. Since desert is backward looking, it is puzzling that someone can deserve a job when the performance has not yet occurred. Imagine that Leo has played wonderful football for years, but before signing a new contract suffers a crippling injury. A conceptual objection to Miller's claim that denying a job to the most deserving candidate wrongfully discriminates against her is that it uses an inadequately broad notion of discrimination.
