No One Actually Wants an Equal Society

[Ben Davis]

[Edwardo Piet]

Indeed, not many people believe that everyone should have the same gender.

No but seriously, there's a difference between equal chances/opportunities and everyone being identical.

Indeed.

first of all, the concept of fairness is not the same as the concept of sameness. And so when Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," he did not mean "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are clones." Rather, that all men are equal in terms of their rights, and that every person ought to be treated as an individual, and not prejudged by the statistics of particular groups that they may belong to.

[John V]

Yeah, I agree with other posters that the OP confuses 'equal' with 'identical'.

Sure, everyone would like to have a stroke of luck now and then, but the overwhelming majority of people who enjoy special privileges weren't born into a privileged class, but work their arse off to get where they are (I exempt clerics, criminals, and career politicians).

Most people probably aren't so much looking for that lotto win (although I doubt many would turn it down) as they are looking for a level playing field.

Boru

Gotta disagree here. Most people want more stuff, and they know they can get more stuff by working their asses off, but they don't want to work that hard. Otherwise we'd see a lot more people working their asses off.

[Minimalist]

(I exempt clerics, criminals, and career politicians).

I'm starting to appreciate career politicians after watching the fucking amateurs in action for the last six weeks.

[brewer]

Do I get to be more equal than you?

[Mr Greene]

For me, the most powerful equaliser is the demonstration that no end is achievable if you remove any critical point of added value. A company requires a CEO however without a salesman, the CEO has nothing but a corporate shell; the salesman is nothing without those creating the product; groups of people, working together, require managers to help them organise effort but without the work, management is meaningless; an office may provide a suitable place for work to be carries out but without sanitation, the workforce will quickly fall ill and inoperative. There are countless examples of this however we continue to consider the CEO as more important than a cleaner. The phrase I use to counter that perspective is that 'all work of value is of equal value' consequently, given the value provided by a process or set of processes, all participants should be equally rewarded.

Office Cleaner is a low-skilled/unskilled role, A salesman requires a particular personality type and a CEO requires a specialised skill set and thus determines a differentiation in the rate of remuneration.
ergo; minimum wage, commission based and salary respectively.

[Ben Davis]

[Autumnlicious]

Relative scarcedy informs market value.

I would expect that if no one would take the job of a sanitation worker, then the market value of those workers would rise or find another source of labor.

[Mr Greene]

[Aroura]

People want equality. If the CAN get it, they will grab more shit, yeah. If they could be a prince or princess, they would naturally jump at the chance.
The two ideas are not mutually exclusive. One is a dream of reality, one is a pipe dream. People can actually want both.
Humans can be greedy jerks, undoubtedly, which is why equality must be legislated.

Tragedy Of The Commons is a real issue.