 We use this formulation so as to keep open at this stage some important questions about the terms on which people may/ought to receive these resources. It is tempting to think of enacting a social minimum as introducing institutions and policies that will give people the resources necessary to lead a minimally decent life in their society. However, this is possibly too restrictive an understanding of what it can mean to enact a social minimum. To see why, consider the following case. There is an individual, called Arya, who is unemployed and hence unable to buy food and shelter. As things stand, Arya lacks the resources necessary to lead a minimally decent life; they are living, as we might say, below the social minimum. However, the government responds to their plight by offering them a job with a wage equal to the level of the social minimum. Now, provided that Arya is able to work, and the work in question is not demeaning or punitive, or the terms of employment otherwise unfair, we can reasonably say that if the government does this for all those in Arya’s position then, for them, it has enacted a social minimum. But clearly it has not given Arya and others like them a social minimum. Rather, it has intervened in a way that provides Arya and these others with reasonable access to the social minimum.