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Equality and fairness
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The Idea of Equality in Society In a series of articles written by Thomas Sowell The Fallacy of Fairness, Sowell’s primary points are people use the word “fair” without even knowing what the word really means. Everyone should consider the exact meaning of the word before using it. Sometimes a word sounds good to the ear but it has a different meaning. An example Sowell’s uses to illustrate this is the psychological examination that is given to the incoming college students. Many people say that the test should not be given to the students as the results will be biased. Therefore, life is going to be different for everyone. Life is not about fate; it depends on an individual attitudes and behavior to be successful. Sowell (2010) pointed out
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.
Anthem and Fahrenheit 451 both hit a very similar theme. The theme in Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, and Anthem, by Ayn Rand can be connected to a universal theme, Equality has limits. Both books support this theme by supporting an idea of a utopia, and both failed in its own way.
This suggests that life has nothing to do with race, gender, class, or sexual orientation. They may exist however, they do not play a role in how he or she is evaluated. Each person has a chance at their own true potential as they all start out equal and have the ability to create their own opportunities (261). This myth implies that the opportunities that are presented were created solely by their own potential. One can simply say if they didn’t succeed they didn’t try hard enough. Alger goes on to say, that being committed to merit-based decision making and the existence of standards to measure merit must not unfairly favor one person over another (262-263). However, the standards must come from somewhere or be decided by somebody. Alger’s myths suggest that the pecking order is maintained, to overlook the racial barriers that are so prevalent in American society (264). Horatio Alger’s myths are a falsehood that clearly does not resonate with how society conducts itself
Equality in American Democracy American democracy changed drastically after the Civil War. One of the major changes in American democracy was equality. Today, American citizens are more equal than the Americans before the Civil War. Major movements, events, and government decisions changed the way people view equality today. Some of these changes improved the equality between American citizens, but others only increased the inequality.
In the beginning of the Second Treatise of Government, John Locke showed his protest against Filmer's theory about the omnipotent power of government over human beings. He assured that political power must derive from the divine state of human beings. That is the State of Nature which includes the state of perfect freedom and the state of perfect equality. In other words, he argued that all men are by nature created equal; however, John Locke didn't reject the reality that inequalities of wealth are natural and inevitable. How is he able to reconcile these two ideas?
A young boy named George was given a transmitter in his ear that would send out a sharp noise to keep him from having an “unfair advantage” in his intelligence. The noise would cause George and anyone else who starting to think about something intellectually would have this noise go through their ear. Thus, causing them to, ultimately, forget what they were thinking before. This causes George to have the same amount of knowledge as his community around him. Average intelligence will allow for no competition and equality among members. Harrison Bergeron relates to fair share grading because there is no diversity of intelligence among students or community members. Everyone will have the same expectations of average intelligence whether you are in the community or in school. Does it seem fair to eliminate someone’s thoughts and feelings because others believe they could be too
In “What Do We Deserve?”, Arora takes a look at political philosophies and asks an important question, “How much of my good life do I really deserve?.” He brings up that argument that the contest of life is “rigged from the start” (Arora). How do one fix the contest so it's fair for everyone? Society can start by leveling the playing field to give everyone an equal chance, eliminating the idea of winner vs. loser, and encouraging and rewarding hard work and natural talents. Once the system is repaired, then we will see that those who make the effort and take advantage of their own gifts will succeed and be truly deserving of their earnings.
Despite serving the same God and reading the same Bible and sharing the same moral values, Christians routinely disagree over how to respond to public policy issues. Why is this so?
Fairness: the state, condition, or quality of being fair, or free from bias or injustice; evenhandedness. In To Kill a Mockingbird this plays a major part. Atticus Finch is a symbol for both of these things. He was extremely noble for defending Tom Robinson a colored man. Despite the color of his skin and the narrow-minded town he lived in. But when Atticus explains that Mr. Robison is paralyzed and in no way could have committed the crime he was accused of. Atticus did not put all the effort into the case thinking he was going to win, he just knew for the sake of his client and for his own personal peace of mind that he had to do it. (Symbol of mockingbird,
Throughout the history of television, it has been evident that certain news stations have portrayed their news in a way that aligns itself with a certain viewpoint or political position. For example, today one can see how stations like Fox take a conservative stance on most issues while CNN takes a more liberal perspective on the same issues. Much of the influence that the media could have on people, especially during elections, was a cause of alarm for many people. This led to the creation of the Fairness Doctrine in 1949.
Stanley Fish was brilliant to point out the different out looks on "fairness". People choose indivually what id fair, but this does not mean that the stndards of the comm...
Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards, authors of Anti-Bias Education: for Young Children and Ourselves, provide a great example of an internal bias that results in unfair judgments. “One example is if you were raised to believe that being prompt is a sign of responsibility, and your family always had a car, then it might be hard for you to comprehend the experience of low-income families who chronically drop their children off late due to unreliable buses (pg. 21).” It is little anecdotes like those that make you evaluate your pure un-bias tendencies against certain social identities.
In economic, social and political terms, equality is more of an idea than a reality for many people in America; the majority of money and power has been in the control of White men since colonial times. Ideologies like racism and sexism perpetuate the status quo by isolating under- privileged groups. Problems arise from divisions that are created between two under- privileged groups. For example, the cry for equality loses much of its power when it is fractured into several segmented cries. The book Outside the Magic Circle, addresses this issue. Organizations which successfully fought for equality, like the NCAPT, were destroyed by forces (such as anti communism) which essentially divide the groups’ members and the groups, themselves. Thus, any given group becomes ineffective. This book demonstrates that unity is the best way to fight for equality.
Is Inequality in America really as bad as we perceive it? In America, we have many people discussing back and forth on the issue of inequality. Some people claim that inequality is a rapidly growing phenomenon, separating the rich from the poor. Though, other Americans claim that we’re progressing and departing away from inequality. However, the way in which we choose to perceive inequality is our choice, but we cannot ignore the fact that it exist. Inequality is an issue that has been constantly debated in the past, and will continue to be debated, so long as we do not put an end to it. Inequality is changing our country. The people who enjoy higher social statuses are spending their money with no limitations, whereas the people in the lower
We often confuse the terms justice and fairness. We assume that if something is just it has to be fair. Well it doesn’t always work that way. What if you see a really sick horse and you want to help it, but you realize that the best thing you can do for it now is to put it out of its misery. This horse just so happens to belong to a little girl who is very fond of the horse. Is it fair to the little girl to see her favorite pet die? But is it fair to the horse to make it suffer through more and more misery? No neither is fair, but one is just. The definition of fair in