4 ms·

> Everyone, even the staunchest libertarian believes in equity What? No, not even slightly. You've just listed off a bunch of highly contentious and often unet

by floor2 3y ago

> Everyone, even the staunchest libertarian believes in equity What? No, not even slightly. You've just listed off a bunch of highly contentious and often unethical things and then acted as if they're unassailable. Farm subsidies have been disastrous and should be massively overhauled or done away with. A desire for a flatter tax structure is a fairly mainstream, though minority political opinion. I don't believe I've ever seen people queue up for a standing-room concert and then give up their front row position to a shorter person who arrived later. "Equity" is probably the worst weasel-word in contemporary America, in order to give favor to some people at the expense of others and to create systems where different rules apply to different people. Fairness, justice and equal rights would be for more universally held opinions. "Equity" is a dog-whistle to treat people unfairly and unjustly.

Spivak 3y ago
See now you're doing it, you've defined fairness as equality when different rules for different people is how most people behave by default without any provocation. I don't give everyone on the street $20, I give money to the homeless. I don't normally hold the door for people but I do for older folks with canes and walkers. And yes, when I'm at concerts tall people let me go in front. You water the plants that are dry, if you give equal water to all your plants they die except the ones that thrive at the level you chose, usually the white ones if you're in the US. Pour one out for the goalie if you gave equal padding to the people on a hockey team. Football is the most fair when different positions have different rules that apply to them. People who strongly believe that equality is the one true way need an escape hatch when equal isn't equitable which is usually called "equality of access." Equal application of a rule that treats different people differently is just equity. Surely you would see through if I tried selling you "equality of outcome" as the most fair because it's equal after all. We means test our social safety net and even BI or negative tax rates that is designed to appeal to "equality" folks is just equity in disguise. Most of the time equal is equitable, but when it isn't we do mental gymnastics to make it fit rather than just say equity is the thing we want.

by floor2 3y ago

Spivak 3y ago

See now you're doing it, you've defined fairness as equality when different rules for different people is how most people behave by default without any provocation. I don't give everyone on the street $20, I give money to the homeless. I don't normally hold the door for people but I do for older folks with canes and walkers. And yes, when I'm at concerts tall people let me go in front. You water the plants that are dry, if you give equal water to all your plants they die except the ones that thrive at the level you chose, usually the white ones if you're in the US. Pour one out for the goalie if you gave equal padding to the people on a hockey team. Football is the most fair when different positions have different rules that apply to them. People who strongly believe that equality is the one true way need an escape hatch when equal isn't equitable which is usually called "equality of access." Equal application of a rule that treats different people differently is just equity. Surely you would see through if I tried selling you "equality of outcome" as the most fair because it's equal after all. We means test our social safety net and even BI or negative tax rates that is designed to appeal to "equality" folks is just equity in disguise. Most of the time equal is equitable, but when it isn't we do mental gymnastics to make it fit rather than just say equity is the thing we want.