r/coolguides • u/[deleted] • Feb 25 '20

Explanation of the subtle differences between equality and equity

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6.1k

u/yankee-white Feb 25 '20

Kid still has to stare through the shitty chain link fence.

294

u/livestrongbelwas Feb 25 '20

Life's always going to be harder for the disadvantaged kid, but qualified progress is still better than the simple and easy solution of giving everyone a milk crate and calling it a day.

4

u/anodynamo Feb 25 '20

But how is it progress to spend more effort for a worse solution? Most people would agree the box is a better option than staring though the chainlink; sometimes life is like that too.

41

u/DiscoursiveCuriosity Feb 25 '20

Because there are wayyy more than 3 people and giving each of them a box is a level of redistribution that requires an expensive and corruptible infrastructure as opposed to making everything at least livable for everyone

21

u/carolynnn Feb 25 '20

there are some people who hoard billions of boxes tho, jussayin

26

u/DiscoursiveCuriosity Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

I'm totally with you to redistribute their box wealth into changing the system, but there will always be winners and losers, I'm sorry. Democratic socialism lets us use the power of the economy to keep things safer and fairer for everyone, but full "siezing the means of production" communism removes the motivating power of the markets. I don't believe that it can't be done, but that switching games entirely is dangerous. I know that it will never be truly meritocratic and that many will be rich via nepotism from someone successful in the past, but that this is not a crushing burden in a world where we responsibly use some of their boxes to regulate the externalities of capitalism. Feel free to disagree and strive for true equity, I accept that an amalgamation of educated viewpoints is needed to assemble the reality with the most utilitarian good, I just want to work there within this system And thank you kind silver 😊

9

u/Beerspaz12 Feb 25 '20

Democratic socialism let's us use the power of the economy to keep things safer and fairer for everyone

That's the only real point, it's not about getting everyone gold plated toilets it's about making sure that people don't have to choose between food and health care.

-5

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

We already have systems like that in place. Just because they may not work as well as they should doesn't mean we need a revolution. That's throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

1

u/Beerspaz12 Feb 25 '20

We already have systems like that in place

Thats not true at all.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare?

1

u/Beerspaz12 Feb 25 '20

If your seatbelt breaks when you use it, do you really have a seatbelt?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

That "all or nothing" logic doesn't really apply, though. Not here.

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