(March 12, 2017 at 1:48 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:(March 12, 2017 at 12:49 pm)Orochi Wrote: Bootstraps . Most of these people don't even have boots
There an echo in here?
(March 12, 2017 at 1:30 pm)Tiberius Wrote: I don't even think equality of opportunity is what we should be aiming for. Clearly if you are born into a family with a family business, you already have an advantage in that business.
Rather than aiming for equality which realistically will never happen, we should be striving to reduce the systemic inequalities that exist. Bring back the American dream.
I think you and I both agree that it's not the government's place to regulate private wealth. The equality of opportunity I was talking about upthread was not along those lines, but along socio-cultural lines: equal access to good education, good jobs, and so on.
I don't know that the American dream ever existed for more than a minority of Americans at any one time, except perhaps in the 50s. Sometimes I'm not even sure what it means. But I do know that I shouldn't be denied a shot at it for being this or that ethnicity, or female, or Muslim. Equality of financial opportunity shouldn't be regulated. Equality of cultural opportunity should.
Did I say boots meant to say feet
Seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy -- myself.
Inuit Proverb
Inuit Proverb