 Let us imagine that we have settled on an acceptable definition of what is necessary for a person to enjoy a “minimally decent life in their society”. We now wish to enact a social minimum to ensure that all members of a society have reasonable access to the resources necessary to lead such a life. A key term here is “reasonable access”. What is meant by this term? Why not say simply that society should ensure that its members have the resources they need to lead a minimally decent life? Why take this apparently roundabout way of expressing things by saying that they ought to have reasonable access to such resources, rather than the resources themselves?