Civil Rights?

Question

What would be the problems associated with Equality Opportunity and Equality outcome philosophies? Which philosophy is more appropriate for American Democracy?

Answer 1

Equality of Outcome is more appropriate for the American Democracy particularly in taxation wherein progressive taxation must be applied to impose higher tax rates as the income increases.

Equal opportunity is a descriptive term for an approach intended to provide a certain social environment in which people are not excluded from the activities of society, such as education, employment, or health care, on the basis of immutable traits. Equal opportunity practices include measures taken by organizations to ensure fairness in the employment process. In job advertisements and descriptions, the fact that the employer is an equal opportunity employer is sometimes indicated by the abbreviations EOE or MFDV which stands for Male, Female, Disabled, Veteran.

Equality of outcome is a form of egalitarianism which seeks to reduce or eliminate differences in material condition between individuals or households in a society. This usually means equalizing income and/or total wealth to some degree. In theory, equality of outcome can be distinguished from equal opportunity. Outcomes can usually be measured with a great degree of precision, opportunities cannot. That is why many proponents of equal opportunity use measures of equality of outcome to judge success. To the extent that inequalities can be passed from one generation to another through substantial gifts and wealth inheritance, it is unclear that equality of opportunity for children can be achieved without greater equality of outcome for parents. Moreover, access and opportunity to various social institutions is partially dependent on equality of outcome. Proponents recognize that greater equality of outcome can be a force preventing co-optation of non-economic institutions important to social control and policy formation, such as the legal system, media or the electoral process, by individuals and coalitions of wealthy people.

Answer 2

Equal opportunity is the American way....
Equal Outcome is a Communist Philosophy that never works in reality.

Answer 3

We had the inequality philosophy before the civil rights movement that benefited women along with minorities. It basically said women and minorities got no equality with white men. It's still not equal if you really want to know, but its better than it was.