ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses one aspect of that question, which might be called the problem of distributional equality. Equality is a popular but mysterious political ideal. Officials often do have sufficient general information about the distribution of tastes and handicaps to justify general adjustments to equality of resources if their goal is equality of welfare. Egalitarians must decide whether the equality they seek is equality of resources or welfare, or some combination or something very different, in order plausibly to argue that equality is worth having at all. Several philosophers, for example, hold meritocratic theories of distributional equality, some of which appeal to what is often called equality of opportunity. If a welfare-egalitarian knows nothing of the sort about a large group of citizens, he may sensibly decide that his best strategy for securing equality of welfare would be to establish equality of income. The chapter considers what might seem a wise and ecumenical suggestion.
