Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
I would say where liberals differ from Corbyn is that Corbyn believes in equality of outcome. He wants to use taxation, welfare, regulation and other things to bring everyone onto the same level as much as possible.
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I agreed with everything you said apart from the bit left in quotes.
Nobody is looking for equality of outcome. That is impossible because we are all different and make different use of the cards we are dealt. The only way in which we can be seen as equal is in the Christian cultural sense of having equal value as human beings. I had this same conversation with someone on FB the other day who was trying, disparagingly, to characterise Socialism as seeking 'equality' - meaning equality of outcome. She then proceeded to shoot the notion down. Really, 'equality' is the sloppy shorthand for 'equality of opportunity'.
I don't believe that you are misrepresenting the concept of 'equality' so that you can then shoot its supporters down, but we do need to be clear what is meant by it in the labour movement - by socialists. Socialism has developed the concept of equality of opportunity from the cultural Christian concept of humans being equally valued regardless of their socio-economic status, race, gender etc. Given that 'equality' means 'equality of opportunity' we can now see attempts to redistribute wealth, maintain free universal education and health services, occasional quotas for women and the disabled in jobs, special needs education, translations of documents for newly arrived immigrants etc as means of levelling the playing field - to give everyone an equal chance of success. This is what the labour movement has always been about since the 19th Century. For an equally long period the right wing press and politicians have sought to diss this admirable ambition by accusing the left of wanting everyone to be the same or have the same wealth and power.