INEQUALITY

What is government’s responsibility for establishing equality among the people? That is the question!!!

Or is it, really? How thoroughly have we thought about this? We know that people, individuals, are inherently unequal. So what is the libertarian view of how government should approach the problem of equality? The image above gives us an idea of some of the issues involved. This is not a new depiction. It has been used by many to illustrate various ideas concerning equality, equity, and liberty. I’m going to start with liberty because isn’t that what our government was established to promote? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were forefront in the Declaration of Independence. There is certainly an implied promise of equality. But the first glance at the picture at the head of this message is one of the disparity among those viewing the game. They are not equal and they may never become equal. Not in size, strength or a myriad of other talents and abilities. Humans are just not built that way. So what is the equality that we supposedly espouse?

I propose the answer to that question is the equality of opportunity. The opportunity to magnify our talents, skills, and abilities in that illusive pursuit of happiness that Thomas Jefferson thought to be the ownership of property. And our ability in that regard is the libertarian’s view of government’s responsibility. In fact, the equal acquisition of property and its inherent relationship to happiness is beyond the ability of anyone, including the finest government on the face of the earth, to provide for us. Our Father in Heaven who devised the form and circumstances of our mortal journey could have provided for such an equality. Instead He provided in us the desire for excellence and the ability to seek it within our individual circumstances. Perhaps it is the condition of those circumstances, the economic and physical status into which we are born, that governments can effect. But our ability to succeed is determined by individual qualities that are determined by our mental, physical and spiritual attributes. That these may each be enhanced and/or decreased by environmental factors including all of the many governmental aspects of our existence is perhaps the source of an unrealistic expectation concerning government’s ability to provide that equality. Now we are back to the same question. What is equality? We may want an equality of outcome or the ability to receive in equal amounts. But what do we deserve? Do we deserve an equal outcome for an unequal effort. Most, if we are honest, will say no to that question. But fairness demands that we have an even chance under the same or similar circumstances. Governments can help to provide that for us. It is called equal opportunity.

Government’s ability to provide an equal opportunity for all is not absolute. There are too many aspects of our daily existence that supersede any government’s reach. So it is necessary to consider what governments can and cannot do for us. And more importantly, what governments SHOULD and SHOULD NOT do for us. That is the “nut” of the question before us. Look at the pictures above once more. The first picture describes the problem…we are not made equal. That’s one issue. The second issue described in pictures one and two is the fence. Is that institutional? If so, why? Institutional infringements on equality can be problematic. If it is done arbitrarily, especially by third parties wishing to achieve or maintain an imbalance, then governments can and should intervene to level the playing field. If, on the other hand, it is done as shown in the first two pictures by a party with a bonafide interest such as the baseball team which has a right to determine who may watch their team play then the government’s interest must be justified on a separate and independent basis. Finally, the third picture illustrates the ideal of liberty. The elimination of  the fence creates an equal chance for all regardless of their innate conditions or abilities. But does that infringe on the team’s ability to control their product? Only the team can decide that. Their are exceptions that come into play when the team has accepted governmental assistance that provides the government with an interest in the  affect on the people whom the government represents.

In summation, EQUALITY and EQUITY and LIBERTY are three different things. They may be influenced by opportunity over which the government may have some legitimate control. But they should never be conflated. When equality and equity are conflated we risk an even greater error which is the conflation of the terms opportunity and outcome. Opportunity is a measurement of one’s chances to succeed. Outcome is a measurement of one’s success in an endeavor. A fair chance and an equal outcome are as impossible for a government to control as is the level of knowledge, skills, and abilities that make up the initial term. Liberty, however, is a measure of the innate rights to which men and women are entitled by virtue of their humanity and relationship to the Divine Creator whose children we all are. The government did not create us. The government did not create the Divine rights of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. We were born with them. Gifts inherited from Divine Parents. Those rights are so important to us that mankind has created governments to ensure the preservation of those rights. The pursuit of happiness includes the right to property that we create out of the world in which we live by mixing it with our labor to create something of value. If government does not protect those rights then it is among those rights to eliminate that government as described in the Declaration of Independence.

It is a slippery slope indeed when governments determine to usurp the God of this earth by assuming responsibility for the creation of those rights or of altering the conditions under which they may be enjoyed. It is a fool’s errand to try to create the utopian existence of equality for everyone. That is because it does not exist. What can be done is to eliminate to best of our ability the interference by any with another’s attempts to achieve his or her desires. Mankind is in a fallen state. We sin and interfere with each other in ways that are undesirable and we have devised governments to help us deal with those situations. But governments are also operated by humans who are subject to the same sinful and harmful behaviors. Believing that government can cure all of the evils to which mankind is subject results in dystopian environments. It has been observed that the worst form of government is anarchy which is NO GOVERNMENT. Following that is a continuum of governments whose value and benefit to mankind is the degree to which they ensure our God given rights including the right to worship…and whose harm and suffering are increased by the degree of control over the gift of moral agency until the power is absolute. This has been achieved to the degree that over 100 Million men and women have been killed by those governments within the last 100 years. That this is unknown to vast numbers of our present population is a tragedy of immense proportions. It is the reason that a post such as this one is necessary.

This begins with governments and their citizens believing that it is possible for governments to manage the inequality to which we as humans are subject. God could have done so but did not. Read other blogs on this site including “There Must Needs Be An Opposition In All Things”. That is because moral agency is more important to the eternal salvation of mankind than equal outcomes. Inequality is part of our nature. It is part of the nature of all living things. If two things are exactly the same, it is by that fact that we may know that they did not occur naturally. Governments who attempt and citizens who insist on equal outcomes are doomed to failure, but not without immense suffering and great harm to both individuals and society.