The words "equality" and "fairness" are tossed around--seemingly without a second thought--by the Left in almost every speech, soundbite, and debate that they have, whatever the issue might be. Equality and fairness are laudible goals--so we are told--that should be at the center of all legislative decisions.
But are these terms synomyms? Is fairness truly equitable? Is equality truly fair? Are these terms truly interchangeable?
First, let's consider what is meant by each term. For the term "Equality", WordNet Search defines the term in two ways--first "the quality of being the same in quantity or measure or value or status", and secondly, as "a state of being essentially equal or equivalent; equally balanced". On the face of it, those sound like laudible ideas--but is a goal of "equality" as defined either by constant sameness in measure of value, or a state of being equally balanced, truly something worthwhile for a society to aspire to? Think about that for a second...we'll come back to that question a bit later.
Now, let's consider the definition of "fairness". Wikipedia defines fairness as "The property of being fair". Um...ok...so that definition really told us nothing. So let's look back to our childhood and think of how many of us learned the concept of "fairness", through play, games, and sports. If you remember back to your childhood, a "fair" game or contest was one in which everybody played by the same rules and conditions. The the idea was that such a "fair" environment would give the best chance of winning to the person or team who played better on the day. When you played baseball, both teams get nine innings at bat. Would if be fair to give an inferior team 15 innings at bat, while restricting a superior team to only nine innings? Ceratainly not. When you played football, was an inferior team only required to make five yards for a first down, while a better team had to gain the full ten yards? Of course not.
In any truly fair competition, inequalities will naturally develop--those who play better, are more talented, and/or work harder will develop advantages within the context of the competition. Fast forwarding out of childhood and into adulthood, it stands to reason that if people are allowed to perform, develop, and work to extent that their talents and capabilities allow, then inequalities will natrually develop. Those who perform better in life will have a higher liklihood of "winning", those who don't perform as well will be less likely to "win" in the game of life. Because human beings are not created with equal amounts of talent, intelligence, drive, work ethic, or any number of other factors, human beings cannot expect to end up with equivalent results in a truly fair environment. Instead, a truly fair environment should see the "best and the brightest" have more success (and, by extension, more money and property, which are how human beings measure success, or "keep score") than others within society.
So now let's re-examine the concept of equality. The concept, as we defined earlier, is strictly about a numeric sameness. It does not take into account performace, work ethic, talent, or drive. Equality doesn't care who performed better or why, it simply takes from those with more natural ability (or from those who have less natural ability but have found a way to get more out of it), and gives to those who don't play "the game of life" as well. To pursue equality in this manner punishes success (and punishes all that leads to that success--the concepts of hard work, ingenuity, and drive) while rewarding failure. If you were playing any game, and you knew that no matter how many points you scored, the referee would simply end the game in a tie no matter what, then how hard would you try? How hard would you compete? Would you truly have anything to gain by playing your best game? I would think not.
So you see that "equality" is actually an unfair concept at it's core. Yet, the American Left bases much of their political philosophy around the concept of equality. How many times does the Left talk about taxing the rich at a higher rate than the rest of the population? While doing so might approach "equality", it certainly isn't "fair". Should those who can afford Health Care be forced to pay for those who cannot? In terms of fairness, the answer should be no-- because doing so rewards those who have not worked and sacrificed to become succesful while punishing those who have.
Much of Liberalism is about taking from the haves and giving to the have nots. However, what Liberalism doesn't take into account is that there are some very good--and very fair--reasons why the "haves" have what they do, and the "have nots" don't.
The next time you hear a politician (usually a Liberal) talking about equality, your ears should now perk up...because you now realize that the politician in question is attempting to use the flawed concept of "equality" to foster an environment that is absolutely unfair.
No comments:
Post a Comment