Passage: Liberalism, in its classical iteration, posits that individual liberty is the primary political value, necessitating a state that remains strictly neutral between competing conceptions of the good life. This neutrality is intended to safeguard the 'negative liberty' of citizens—their freedom from interference. However, this posture of neutrality is itself a substantive moral commitment that often prioritizes the status quo. By refusing to intervene in the distribution of resources, the state implicitly endorses the outcomes of a market that is far from neutral. True autonomy requires more than the absence of chains; it requires the presence of the social and economic foundations that make the exercise of choice meaningful. To ignore the structural barriers that limit the choices of the impoverished is to offer them a 'freedom' that is little more than a hollow abstraction. The question for modern justice is whether the state should continue to be a passive referee or become an active architect of opportunity.