Access to Basic Goods

Chapter Four, “Access to Basic Goods,” turns to a third way in which discriminatory practices can wrong people: they can leave them without access to resources or social institutions that are “basic” in the sense that access to them is necessary for these people if they are to participate fully and equally in their society. The author explains that to identify a good as “basic” in this sense is not to claim that it is objectively good or that it is necessary for all groups in that society. The author argues that certain goods can be seen as basic only from the perspective of the person or group who lacks that good, and that it is therefore very important to look to the discriminatee’s particular situation, needs, and values. The chapter then explains the importance of this form of wrongful discrimination and gives examples of cases that are best understood in this way, including the fight for same sex marriage and for women’s freedom to breastfeed in public. The author also argues that there is a distinctive kind of wrongness involved when discrimination leaves someone without access to a basic good, different from the wrongs explored in other chapters of the book.