Justice as fairness takes the problem of distributive justice to concern the prospective shares of primary social goods that various representative persons (or social positions) are expected to receive over a complete life. “Chain connection” and “close-knitness” are simplifying assumptions that Rawls makes concerning the dynamic relationships among these different social positions. A society is “close-knit” if whenever there are changes to one position, all other positions change as well. There is no requirement that they all gain or lose together. Close-knitness holds whether a change to one position results in gains or losses to the other positions, as long as there is some change. In contrast, chain connection holds only if every change that results in gains to both the least-advantaged position and to the most-advantaged position also results in gains to all of the intermediate positions. It says nothing about what happens to the intermediate positions if there is a gain to the least-advantaged position but a loss to the most-advantaged position. Rawls’s defense of the two principles of justice does not depend on assuming that the society is close-knit or that chain connection holds. Nonetheless, he makes these simplifying assumptions to help clarify the content of the difference principle.