Saturday Musings – Equal Opportunity vs Equal Outcomes

Choose your equal....

I must admit that this blog post may get some people a little riled up…..but that’s OK as long as it provokes you to do some serious thinking. Over the last decade I’ve found the world has largely gone mad as it increasingly focuses on notion of equality of outcome no matter what. What do I mean by this?

Escrow.com

For a start, I’m absolutely for equality of opportunity. I don’t care what gender you are, the colour of your skin or what ethnic background you hail from. Everyone should have equal opportunity and it is up to the individual to decide whether they will avail themselves of the opportunities before them.

Now let’s look at equal outcome. Equal outcome is driven by saying things such as, “We want 50% of all politicians to be women.” or “If you are from a particular ethnic race then you get a bump in your educational score.” These sound like worthwhile goals until you unpack them.

Let’s imagine you are going to the doctor and find they are of the race that gets a bump in their education score. Does this mean they are qualified, or did they get a passing grade because their race? I would imagine you don’t want any of those thoughts going through your mind as you discuss your upcoming medical condition with them. What you want is the best qualified doctor giving potentially life and death advice.

Likewise, you’re about to jump on a plane and a women’s voice comes over the PA announcing she is the captain. Should we be worried that she is potentially under qualified and was awarded the position because of her gender?

I find these two scenarios unbelievably insulting to all those doctors that happened to be also from “bumped up score race”. It’s also insulting to all those women who work so incredibly hard to achieve a life-time dream. To my way of thinking it’s just wrong.

As soon as you mandate an outcome you’re no longer part of a meritocracy where your individual skills are what allow you to gain your goal. In some circumstances a philosophy of “equal outcome” can be very dangerous and as I said above it’s incredibly insulting to all those hard-working individuals that just happen to belong to a societal group that is “blessed” with a leg up.

We can even push this further. Let’s imagine we have a society where 75% of the health workers are women…..should we then mandate that this should be 50% to reflect the gender properly?  Should we then get rid of a whole lot of female doctors and nurses and replace them with men who either don’t want to do the job or are not qualified to do it?

Continue reading
0
  2943 Hits
  3 Comments
Recent Comments
vanclute
Well said and watching first hand how the USA is completely imploding because of the PC movement as we speak, I couldn't agree mor... Read More
10 November 2019
Rawgi
I think you are on the right track. Try being on the negative side of that thinking, like I am now 66 and have been told I am t... Read More
10 November 2019
Guest — Uknowledge
The best article among all the articles i have ever read on your blog. Well said.Political correctness will destroy this nation.... Read More
11 November 2019
2943 Hits
3 Comments