Equality: Equal Opportunities

1074 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Equality in today's society

We, human beings, have formed a society based on certain rules that govern our actions and behavior. We share mutual resources and while building up our lives we commit innumerate amount of decisions everyday that lead us to differing paths. Some of us are more successful than others due to various reasons. Many people question whether the success someone has experienced is due to hard work and entitlement or simple luck. Success itself is a vague concept and has its own connotations for everyone. It may mean love, power, resources or anything else. A centuries old debate for societies has been whether the ‘success’ is distributed fairly across its members. If it is due to luck, then why is person A more privileged than person B who would result unhappy. Person A obviously replies that he/she is worth it and has worked hard for the followed success. Person B, on the other hand, is unsatisfied because he sees that he was not at the right place at the right time when the ‘success’ happened demanding a compensation, in other words, equality. It is hard to find anyone who would oppose the notion of equality. The difficulty arrives when questions such as ‘equality between whom’ and ‘equality of what’ arise with diverging opinions. (Baker, Lynch, Cantillon, & Walsh, 2004). In political ideologies debate, we may identify the two main approaches to equality. Liberals advocate the equality of opportunity such that every member of society should be allowed to have a same starting position in order to equally compete for the advantage. Socialists, quite the contrary, claim that a civilization is about the equality of outcomes and that citizens of one community should eventually have similar living standards or access to resources without big... ... middle of paper ... ...et al., 2004) In this essay we have worked through the popular concepts of equal opportunity and equal outcomes seeing that neither of them is enough once we idealize of an egalitarian society. Equality of condition can also be seen as insufficiently precise but it is a step further towards a ideal society that is worth living in for all citizens. Works Cited Arneson, R. (2002, October 8). Equality of Opportunity. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equal-opportunity/#7 Baker, J., Lynch, K., Cantillon, S., & Walsh, J. (2004). Dimensions of Equality: A Framework for Theory and Action. In Equality: From Theory to Action (pp. 21–47). Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan. Phillips, A. (2004). Defending equality of outcome. London: LSE Research Online. Retrieved from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/533/1/equality_of_outcome.pdf

Show More
Related

  • Namit Arora's Essay 'What Do We Deserve'

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    Arguments about fairness and justice have been up for debate for centuries. "What do we deserve?", a question that has many individuals raising their brows to their efforts in their pursuit to achieve their goals. If it is said that we are all placed on an equal standard why are there individuals struggling to stay afloat? In Arora’s essay, he examines three forms of economic modals of social justices that question that idea of why the prosperous or the impecunious "deserve" their position or stature in life. Out of all of Arora's economic modals that he presents the Meritocratic System is the fairest because it gives everyone a fighting chance.

    Read More

  • Poor People And Economic Injustice By Barbara Ehrenreich

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first standard of equality is ontological equality which is the notion that everyone is created equal at birth. Ontological equality often justifies material inequality. In fact, this type of equality is sometimes used to put forth the notion that poverty is a virtue. A second standard of equality is equality of opportunity meaning that “everyone has an equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power because the rules of the game, so to speak, are the same for everyone”( Conley, 247). Therefore, any existing inequality is fair as long as everyone plays by the rules. The standard of equality is equality of condition, which is the idea that everyone should have an equal starting point. The last form of equality is equality of outcome which states, everyone should end up with the same outcome regardless of

    Read More

  • Comparison Of The Pedestrian And Harrison Bergeron

    1123 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. everybody is equal. Equality should be shown in rights not in looks or thoughts. “All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.”(Vonnegut,1). The

    Read More

  • Inequality in Machiavelli's The Prince, More's Utopia, and Las Casas' Account of the Destruction of the Indies

    1565 Words  | 4 Pages

    The fight for equality and human rights has been and still is a continuous battle played out on many fronts ranging from struggles between ruling governments and the people, the definition of societal roles and status, and also within the home on a domestic and individual level. The legacy for these battl...

    Read More

  • Equality and Civil Rights

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    Democracy stresses the equality of all individuals and insists that all men are created equal. Democracy does not persist on an equality of condition for all people or argue that all persons have a right to an equal share of worldly goods. Rather, its concept of equality insists that all are entitled to equality of opportunity and equality before the law. The democratic concept of equality holds that no person should be held back for any such arbitrary reasons as those based on race, color, religion, or gender. This concept of equality holds that each person must be free to develop himself or herself as fully as he or she can or cares to and that each person should be treated as the equal of all other persons by the law. We have come a great distance toward reaching the goal of equality for all in this country, but however close we are we are still at a considerable distance from a genuine universally recognized and respected equality for all. I will go into more details giving more information and making it clear to understand equality and civil rights for all and it affects everyone.

    Read More

  • What are the Causes of Inequality?

    2446 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the treatise named “Leviathan” published in 1651, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) proposed an early variant of equality among men that inequality did not exist in natural condition, meaning everyone is born equal; however, inequality's existence was the result of civil laws (Hobbes & Gaskin, 1998). In this sense, inequality is generally referred to social inequality which is characterized by the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society; plus, this negative social phenomenon contains structured and recurrent patterns of unequal distributions of goods, wealth, opportunities, rewards, and punishments (Crossman, 2012).

    Read More

  • Declaration of Independence Impact in American Society

    1865 Words  | 4 Pages

    "The Poverty Of Equality." American Spectator 45.3 (2012): 26-30. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.

    Read More

  • John Locke and Thomas Hobbes

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    Louis P. Pojman and Robert Westmoreland, eds., Equality: Selected Readings (New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1997), 30.

    Read More

  • Distributive Justice in a Defense of Pluralism and Equality by Michael Walzer

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    Distributive justice requires the philosophical powers of reflection of the greatest theorists. In order to solve certain social issues, the most pragmatic solution must be concocted carefully to solve the biggest loopholes. Michael Walzer is no stranger to the complexity of social inequality. In his book A Defense of Pluralism and Equality, he argues that every society decides on the value of a social good and therefore should distribute those good according to the meanings they have. The social goods (healthcare, office, membership, money, politics, education) are divided into spheres each having their own distributive arguments. Walzer’s acceptance of the pluralistic nature of human group and ideology leads to his argument of a complex equality, one that contrasts the ideas of equality explicit in Rawlsian Liberalism.

    Read More

  • A Theory of Justice Presented by John Rawls

    1569 Words  | 4 Pages

    In A Theory of Justice John Rawls presents his argument for justice and inequality. Rawls theorizes that in the original position, a hypothetical state where people reason without bias, they would agree to live in a society based on two principles of justice (Rawls 1971, 4). These two principles of justice are named the first and second principles. The first is the equal rights and liberties principle. The second is a combination of the difference principle and the fair equality of opportunity principle, or FEOP (Rawls 1971, 53). Rawls argues that inequality will always be inevitable in any society (Rawls 1971, 7). For example, there will always be a varied distribution of social and economic advantages. Some people will be wealthier than others and some will hold places of greater importance in society. Rawls’s argument is that to ensure the stability of society the two principles of justice are needed to govern the assignment of rights and regulate the inequality (Rawls 1971, 53). Any infringement of an individuals rights or inequality outside the parameters of the principles of justice are unjust.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Cultural Marxism

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    Equality is one of those buzzwords that we often here nowadays. Equality comes to us in many forms such as gender equality, marriage equality, and economic equality. It is the driving force behind LGBT rights, feminism, social justice, and so on. The concept of economic and social equality didn’t used to be an American virtue, so where did it come from? The many forms of equality have its roots in Marxism and was imported to America in the form of cultural Marxism. Cultural Marxism is a very subtle method of influencing the culture towards Marxist ways of thinking. Marxism essentially tries to enforce equality in situations where equality does not exist. It is a worldview that radically changes ones thinking. It sees problems and inequalities in society and seeks to solve them. In doing so it stirs up feelings of anger and resentment. It creates such intense feelings of injustice that people feel they have to act. But it is an impossible task. The only thing it succeeds in doing is causing more inequality and ultimately tyranny.

    Read More

  • Is Everyone Really Equal Analysis

    1334 Words  | 3 Pages

    We live in a world full of many societal issues. The aspects that determine whether one will have a successful or unsuccessful life is due to their characteristics such as race, gender, and social status. In the book Is Everyone Really Equal, Ozlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo’s exigence is to express the following issues and to encourage the reader to work upon changing the world through social injustice, oppression, power, and community.

    Read More

  • Equality

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    attributed not to the fact that men were more accepting of the idea that women

    Read More

  • The Ethical Theory Of Gender Equality

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    Do we truly understand how the meaning to equality among men and women affect society. Jobs, health, and education are affected by what transpires from the meaning to gender equality. Throughout history equality has been debated. Equality is defined as getting respect and giving respect regardless of gender or culture through fair treatment and maximized happiness. Balance and harmony are developed from the application of ethical theories to aid society in defining the meaning to gender equality rather than debating the issue. Therefore, defining gender equality should be the role of society by utilizing ethical theories. The theories can be consequentialist or nonconsequentialist acts that develop and maintain good morality and ethical

    Read More

  • Equality Between Men and Women

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    Equality is a concept mankind never is able to grasp correctly. Of course humans will always search for different solutions to create fairness, but factors such as human greed, ignorance of mass populations, and even biological aspects stagnates the process of equality. The oldest and most relevant discussion on equality lies with the difference of sex; man versus woman. Initially, men, because of their physical superiority, were given the prospects many women never even dreamt to have. Conversely, as time has progressed, women have fought this unfair treatment with demands of suffrage and similar rights to those of their male equivalents. Greatly enough, this generation has done an exceptional job in the challenge of overcoming sexism and inequality. However, will this search for equality ever end? When can we say we have created an equal race of men and women? The fact of the matter is that it is truly impossible to have equality between the sexes because of predisposed circumstances that are not easily controllable in the slightest bit.

    Read More

More about Equality: Equal Opportunities

Open Document