FREE TO CHOOSECHAPTER 5

CREATED EQUAL

I. INTRODUCTION

Define equality What should be the goal of equality? Is it

equality of opportunity or equality of outcomes (i.e. results)?

Define liberty Define freedom How do these terms differ?

II. EQUALITY BEFORE GOD

“All men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Equality before God is important precisely because people are not identical

What do you think “created equal” means? How would you address this to someone

without a Judeo-Christian background?

III. EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY

Literal equality of opportunity is impossible due to nature and other external effects

Best expressed as “a career open to the talents”

No arbitrary obstacles should prevent someone from pursuing positions that they seek

Equality of opportunity is an essential component of liberty

III. EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY

III. EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY

III. EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr- I have a Dream

IV. EQUALITY OF OUTCOME

“If all are to have ‘fair shares,’ someone or some group of people must decide what shares are fair- and they must be able to impose their decisions on others, taking from those who have more than their ‘fair’ share and giving to those who have less.”

There is a fundamental conflict between the ideal of “fair shares” and the ideal of personal liberty

Is life fair? Is it supposed to be fair?

IV. EQUALITY OF OUTCOME

Class activity: have students decide final grade distribution

How do you decide who determines “fair shares”?

V. WHO FAVORS EQUALITY OF OUTCOME? Short answer- very few, as evidenced by

practice Very few redistribute wealth as would be

required by equality of outcome So if very few people actually practice it, why

is so much policy directed as equality of outcome?

V. WHO FAVORS EQUALITY OF OUTCOME? Are “the rich” rich at the expense of the poor? What do you think of Milton’s argument that

inheritance of talent is, in principle, the same as monetary inheritance?

Play video about Al Sharpton’s vision of equality. Contrast with King’s Dream speech

V. WHO FAVORS EQUALITY OF OUTCOME?

VI. CONSEQUENCES OF EGALITARIAN POLICIES “When the law interferes with people’s pursuit

of their own values, they will try to find a way around.”

As US policy has shifted toward equality of outcome, how has the US “lost” people?

VII. CAPITALISM AND EQUALITY Myth: free market capitalism is a system

under which the rich exploit the poor Capitalism has benefited the common man

more than any other system Non-capitalist countries have greater income

inequality Why don’t non-capitalist systems provide

better outcomes?

VIII. CONCLUSION

“A society that puts equality ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.”

“…a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality.”

True or False?