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Discussion thread for the blog entry "Equity now?" by Inferno.
Permalink: http://blog.leagueofreason.org.uk/culture/equity-now/
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Equity now?
- Thread starter Blog of Reason
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Hmmm..to a degree it is semantics. Except when you highlight fairness as opposed to equality. One way i look at at this is > would it be fair if we were all treated as equals regarding tax. A rich man becomes equal to a poor man, in matters of tax.
What is being invoked by "equity" seems to concern the pet hate of Glenn Beck (im slightly obsessed with him) "Social Justice".
One of the reasons i think it is partly semantics, and why we don't need to dispense with equality in favor of equity is the illustration of the people watching baseball on crates. Varying in different heights they all equally have the same sized crates but they are unequal in being unable to see the game. Regardless of the concept it is relative, and subject to uneven application. The most obvious of these concepts is freedom- free from what, free to do what. Similarly with equality "sameness" regarding what, tax, education, employment, law etc.
Equality regarding tax between the wealthy and the poor means increased inequality regarding their existing unequal wealth differences and consequently leading to inequalities regarding education, health, employment, leisure etc.
Coming from a socialist tradition which pushes equality as well as concepts around equity- "fairness" , the point is not to give everyone, or limit everyone to, the same wage, or, disregard the benefits of inequality i.e. exceptional skill in basketball, painting, maths etc. But to remove from society systems of inequality, namely class inequality and the economic system that reproduces those classes. Which the occupy movement so very succinctly formulated as the 99% vs the 1%.
Additionally this reminded me of a quote of Marx's, in Value Prices and Profit, at the end of this work he argues against what he sees as the conservative motive still alive today .
A fair days wage for a fair days work is not necessarily fair. As it would be in most cases a struggle to obtain a rate of wages previously secured. This would be very true today in America, for example, where wages have been stagnating since the 1970's according to economist Richard Wolff. Instead what is fair is the cause of unfairness, the wage system - capitalism, which for Marx sees profit as being secured from surplus value and in part unpaid wages of the workers being abolished.
What is being invoked by "equity" seems to concern the pet hate of Glenn Beck (im slightly obsessed with him) "Social Justice".
One of the reasons i think it is partly semantics, and why we don't need to dispense with equality in favor of equity is the illustration of the people watching baseball on crates. Varying in different heights they all equally have the same sized crates but they are unequal in being unable to see the game. Regardless of the concept it is relative, and subject to uneven application. The most obvious of these concepts is freedom- free from what, free to do what. Similarly with equality "sameness" regarding what, tax, education, employment, law etc.
Equality regarding tax between the wealthy and the poor means increased inequality regarding their existing unequal wealth differences and consequently leading to inequalities regarding education, health, employment, leisure etc.
Coming from a socialist tradition which pushes equality as well as concepts around equity- "fairness" , the point is not to give everyone, or limit everyone to, the same wage, or, disregard the benefits of inequality i.e. exceptional skill in basketball, painting, maths etc. But to remove from society systems of inequality, namely class inequality and the economic system that reproduces those classes. Which the occupy movement so very succinctly formulated as the 99% vs the 1%.
Additionally this reminded me of a quote of Marx's, in Value Prices and Profit, at the end of this work he argues against what he sees as the conservative motive still alive today .
A fair days wage for a fair days work is not necessarily fair. As it would be in most cases a struggle to obtain a rate of wages previously secured. This would be very true today in America, for example, where wages have been stagnating since the 1970's according to economist Richard Wolff. Instead what is fair is the cause of unfairness, the wage system - capitalism, which for Marx sees profit as being secured from surplus value and in part unpaid wages of the workers being abolished.
