 In several passages in A Theory of Justice John Rawls attacks what he takes to be the desertist conception of justice. In these passages, Rawls seems to have in mind something quite like Earthly Moral Desertism. He mentions what he takes to be the motto of desertism: ‘justice is happiness according to virtue’ (1971, 310). Some of his objections to desertism turn on difficulties that governments would face if they were to try to ensure a proper fit between citizens’ levels of virtue and happiness. This indicates that Rawls was imagining (and trying to refute) a form of desertism that would saddle the government with the task of matching happiness levels to virtue levels. 