>When most of us progressive types speak out against "economic inequality", we are not saying we want everybody to have equal wealth. The concern is about risin

>When most of us progressive types speak out against "economic inequality", we are not saying we want everybody to have equal wealth. The concern is about rising inequality, of increasing wealth concentrated in an increasingly tiny percentage of the population, while millions struggle to get by, often one bad month away from financial ruin. Eh, I definitely care about at least some degree of real equality of wealth, because wealth just is the material basis for both political power and personal freedom. What I terminally care about is equality of choice: the mostly equal ability of people from different origins in society to make meaningful choices based on their own needs, desires, and values. Not everyone can become an astronaut or a CEO, but if someone's born to a poor family in a minority neighborhood, we still want their choice to pursue being an astronaut to meaningfully affect the course of their life. Better that they make it into the Air Force and fail to make astronaut on their own merits than that they never get on that track in the first place because their station in life stops them from learning high-school physics.