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A Critical Study of Social Equality
Different viewpoints toward equality have continually been expressed throughout history. Most recent of which, include the modern political ideas of communism and the democratic/capitalist systems of government in the west. A search to employ equality by various means has proven to be an extremely difficult task. Consequently, equality seems to be a central issue in utopian literature, as philosophers have continually sought to find the best structure for society, one in which all can be equal or at the least be provided with the equality of opportunity. However, as this essay further explores equality, one realizes that within the confines of a capitalist economy, total equality is unfeasible. Nonetheless, total equality may not be what we should strive for, but rather the equality of opportunity.
One such example of a philosopher in search of equality is evident in Condorcet's "Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind" in which, he argues that social equality will arise only if education becomes available to all citizens. He furthers this argument by stating a sense superiority is felt among those who are educated, and they in turn govern, suppress, and take advantage of those who are not. Therefore, if all citizens have equal opportunity to education "they will attain a real equality since differences in enlightenment or talent can no longer raise a barrier between men…" (Sargent, 17). Interestingly enough, Condorcet's view that education should be provided to all citizens has largely become a reality in the western world. And although western society has made fine steps toward equality, it still seems like total equality looms miles away. Even to this day race, gender, and class play a significant role in the subordination and under representation of peoples such as ethnic minority groups, women, and the poor.
Similar ideas on equality have been expressed through various other literary works, most popular of which Thomas More's Utopia addressed equality by eliminating the class system "In Utopia there are no classes, if by class we mean the hereditary privileges or disabilities which separated the citizens in Plato's Republic and caused them to be referred to one or another of four distinct groups of society… [in Utopia] The social distinctions that there are to be found, are entirely based on merit." (Donner, )
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Furthermore, Eugene Kamenka in his book "Utopias" argues that "private property acquires social power" (Kamenka,6). Based on that fact alone, (that some citizens will own more private property than others), it suggests that the society would have various social positions or "classes" whereupon the different citizens will have varying respects of social recognition based on property (land, money, riches, etc.). In this case, access to education would no longer matter in the grand view of achieving total social equality, as it would then have already become impossible due to the struggle between rich and poor. Therefore, Condorcet's view on social equality through education would be seemingly futile, unless private property was banished in co-existence with his theory. As a result, we see that in a capitalist society, which relies heavily on private property to drive the economy, totally social equality is implausible.
Nonetheless, Condorcet's idea of providing equal education opportunities to all citizens raises an interesting topic. If, as previously explored, social equality is truly impossible to reach within the confines of a capitalist society (which relies on private property), Condorcet is reasonable in exploring the equality of opportunity. Equality of opportunity would seemingly be the next morally righteous step assuming total social equality is not possible. This idea of providing the equality of opportunity is further examined by Andres Lavine in a chapter entitled "What Do Egalitarians Want?" Lavine discusses the "equality of what" debate in which he seemingly sees two approaches first well-being egalitarianism, which refers to total equality. And secondly, resource egalitarianism which Lavine explains is the idea that all should receive equal distribution of the means for obtaining what matters "intrinsically" (basic and essential). In essence, what such egalitarians want is equal opportunity within society. The idea of resource egalitarianism, since total equality as been determined unlikely in a capitalist society, seems, in Lavine's eyes, to be best means of structure for a government within society. Not only does it rid of "free riding" and "idleness" problems, but it encourages the individual to set out in life and take advantage of the opportunities provided to him, such as publicly funded education. In turn, the equality of opportunity then allows for social mobility, and even though there will be distinct classes of rich and poor, the poor are provided with the opportunity to breach their rank of social class and climb the ladder of social mobility.
Furthermore, he continues his examination of equality by stating, "The "equality of what?" debate is about theoretical ideals. In practice, an equal distribution of any of the various distribuands proposed in the literature would be impossible to implement precisely" (Lavine).Instead, distribution could only be approximated, and such an effort to distribute welfare resources or any other likely distribuand would in the end be unbalanced, and corrupted as we saw thought the example of communism. In effect, egalitarians are committed to bringing the bottom classes up through political means, but Lavine would argue that such an attempt must be done by the "bottom" because of the political problems that arise, namely idleness, free-riding, and the possibility of unequal distribution.
Nonetheless, one may argue that the inequalities that are posed by race and gender issues will still linger within society, even if resource egalitarianism is implemented. To a large extent this may be true; however, have we seen a society that has implemented the resource egalitarianism fully? Certainly some would argue that the in the United States, so commonly referred to as the "land of opportunity and freedom" has provided equal opportunity. Yet, we must not over look such practical examples as private health insurance and the issue of private education, which in turn allow for a higher level of opportunity to those that are wealthy, further setting apart the chance of the poor climbing the ranks of social mobility. Such critics of resource egalitarianism would point out that in many capitalist societies the popular trend seems to be the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. However, although starting at the bottom of a capitalist society may take generations to reach some sort of upward social mobility nonetheless the opportunity is there providing health completion, discouraging "free riding". A successful and truly people oriented government would then find ways to encourage those at the bottom of the social ranks to seize the opportunities presented to them such as public education, while providing governmental structure that allows for a pure form of resource egalitarianism excluding two tier institution (public and private),
Agreeably, such inequalities posed by race and gender have been extremely difficult issues to deal with in the past, and still today pose an extreme threat to equality even after the civil right movement in the United States. However, since equality has been excluded to the founding race and gender in many cases of nations (Ancient Sparta and the United States to name one old and one new) , in order to achieve equality of all races and gender, those that have been underrepresented and discriminated against in the past, namely African-Americans, Native Americans, and Women, in the United States are just in receiving legislation such as affirmative action to push them into the realm of social equality, and, in turn place them in positions to receive equal opportunity for their racial or gender groups in the future. While at the same time, once a reasonable amount of such previously discriminated people had climbed the social ladder, affirmative action would have to then be eradicated, otherwise the legislation would be discriminative against the founders.
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