Preface

Summary

When I was a child, I saw a movie in which the Soviet Union blew up the Alaska pipeline. The bombing was in response to a U.S. grain embargo that had led to widespread starvation in the Soviet Union. The president telephoned the premier to denounce him for the bombing. The premier responded that the president had fired the first shot.

Amazed, the president said, “You mean to say that when we decide not to give you our grain, you think that gives you the right to bomb our pipeline?”

The premier responded, “It's not your grain. It's the world's grain.”

That scene showed me something that, as a young boy, I had not imagined possible: unresolvable disagreement about (what I took to be) a basic fact, namely who had fired the first shot. That revelation remains fresh in my mind.

Bob Goodin and I are like the characters in that movie. In some way, we are alien to each other. Nonetheless, I have come to have the highest respect for him and, indeed, to think of him as a friend. Each of us has more to say about responsibility and welfare than can be said in these few pages, of course. Interested readers would be well advised to consult Goodin's other works. They set the standard for philosophical reflection on the topic of social welfare.