link to original reddit post by /u/Away_Note
I have been talking to a few people here and there trying to articulate why I cannot support the rise of equity no matter how emotionally satisfying it might sound or how well it checks the virtue box, and I thought of the following which I though I might share: equity, in a nutshell, is the equality of outcomes always at the expense of someone else. I cannot support this because, if you think about that concept, equity has really existed for thousands of years. Up until the enlightenment era and the rise of the Untied States, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the nobility and royalty, with some exceptions (mainly due to conflict), were born rich and they died rich. Likewise, the vassals, servants, and serfs, again with some exceptions, were born poor and died poor. What changed, especially with American Federalism, is the inverse notion that everyone whether rich or poor had the same rights and the right pursue success in what I would like to call the equality of opportunity.
Obviously, this equality, even within the American experiment, has not been perfect, but it has yielded in unprecedented wealth and prosperity never before seen in human history, it is this same equality that Martin Luther King and the civil rights leaders were fighting for, and it is the same equality that the New Left is trying to destroy to return us back to the way it was 500 years ago.
Thus, I am always going to support equality of opportunity for everyone because, in all honesty, total equity is impossible to achieve. There will always be rich and there will always be poor. The question is, do we want to live in a world where prosperity and poverty are based on inheritance and factors that one cannot change or based upon a system in which everyone is given the same opportunities to succeed and fail?
Tl; dr: Equity involves the equality of outcomes at the expense of others and true equality involves the equality of opportunities. Which is more ethical? Obviously, true equality.
Edited for grammar.