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A Brief for Equality
Schwalbe. Michael
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/29/a-brief-for-equality/Date Written: 2015-12-29 Publisher: Counterpunch Year Published: 2015 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX22144 If it is believed that equality reflects and affirms what we most value in human social life, then the only politically coherent stance is to insist on it as a goal to aim for. This article takes a look at why equality is more desirable than inequality. Abstract: -- Excerpt: In a class society, however, endorsing equity protects deeper inequalities, given that abilities and motivation are largely the results of circumstances over which people have no control. What class means is that nurturance, resources, and opportunities -- those things that underlie the development of ability from childhood through adulthood -- are unequally distributed from the start. Thus to invoke equity to justify inequality is ideological artifice. In the context of a capitalist society, to invoke differences in ability to justify inequality is to use the outcomes of inequality to justify the perpetuation of inequality. Subject Headings |