A semi-formed thought to entertain: If the the primary goal of liberalism is optimal distribution of judgment throughout society, then optimal distribution of material resources might be one means to that end. But this means must be balanced against the ultimate question every liberal must unceasingly ask: who decides? Whose judgment prevails? Or to put it more liberally, by what procedure is the decision made? To say “by the market” is to beg the question. To say “by ballot” is to forget the essential tension between liberalism and democracy. To say “by judicial ruling” is to forget the tension in the opposite direction.

In liberal democracy there are no easy answers, and appearances to the contrary signal a misframing of controversies, perhaps symptomatic of blindness to the liberal-democratic metaphysic. To put it in language popularized by “design thinking”, it is leveling down wicked social problems into tame technical ones.

To say about any social problem, “this problem has an obvious solution, and if people would get out of my way and let me solve it, they would see I’ve been right all along” contains a self-delegitimization.