How can anyone make a moral claim on the basic needs of another?
I said that people have an equal claim on resources. This implies that resources ought to be distributed on the basis of need. Sure, you can say that someone has a right to meet their own needs for food and shelter. But I don’t see how my own interests in unnecessary luxury spending should weigh equally against other people’s interests in getting their basic needs fulfilled. You can’t say that you’re treating people’s interests equally by splitting things half and half, when in reality you’ve already taken an advantage. If we’re at a party and I say that I’m going to eat as much of the cake as I need to no longer be hungry, and then I split it with the hungry people after I took what I needed while continuing to eat more, I’m not sharing it fairly. I should either take what I need and then give up the rest, or I should split it equally in the first place.
I said that people have an equal claim on resources. This implies that resources ought to be distributed on the basis of need. Sure, you can say that someone has a right to meet their own needs for food and shelter. But I don’t see how my own interests in unnecessary luxury spending should weigh equally against other people’s interests in getting their basic needs fulfilled. You can’t say that you’re treating people’s interests equally by splitting things half and half, when in reality you’ve already taken an advantage. If we’re at a party and I say that I’m going to eat as much of the cake as I need to no longer be hungry, and then I split it with the hungry people after I took what I needed while continuing to eat more, I’m not sharing it fairly. I should either take what I need and then give up the rest, or I should split it equally in the first place.