Leslie Mccal's Five Tropes

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Recommended: Economic inequality in America

As previously discussed, the both tolerance and ignorance perspectives hold that Americans’ tolerance of economic inequality is predicated on their unwavering faith in the availability of equal and open opportunity. Like their views of distributive justice, American views about opportunity are similarly nuanced.
Leslie McCall divides opportunity into five tropes, each corresponding with a way Americans conceptualize opportunity. Violations of each trope of opportunity correspond with a particular problem Americans might have with inequality. The first, the level playing field, requires equal access to the means by which one prepares for positions, usually by education. ‘Bootstraps’ opportunity holds that hard work and preference are sufficient

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