Equality Part 1: How To Argue
I’m a believer in equality. I believe in equality of opportunity, although to be that’s a fancy way of saying I believe in fairness. Which is why I’ve produced a set of posts on the theme of equality, rambling through my beliefs and experiences as regards equalities and politics, sexism, sexuality, racism and disability. A little something for everyone…
Political Debate
Equality of opportunity is most emphatically not about treating everybody the same. It’s about treating everyone in such a manner that they have the equivalent choices and opportunities. Not everyone agrees with this point: I had an interesting debate with a chap recently who felt that while there wasn’t a basis for discrimination on the basis of, say, race, it would be reasonable for the private sector to discriminate against someone on the basis that in order to provide them an equal opportunity it would result in an increased cost.
Now don’t get me wrong: this bloke is a perfectly reasonable bloke, but I just happen to disagree with him politically.
He says:
…I am as against sexual discrimination laws for private business as I am against disability discrimination laws.
The emphasis being on private: he believes it’s right for people not to discriminate, he thinks the public sector should be legislated not to discriminate, but he doesn’t think that should have to apply to the private sector.
A fair point. I disagree with him, and told him so, but I understand the argument he is making: I believe in a civilised society we should strive towards a level playing field even if that means some people need extra help. That’s my belief. However, I understood his point and he summed up his stance quite well:
I’m not entirely a free-market sociologist, but I think I have leanings in that direction
Whereas I on the other hand am a self-declared pinko liberal bleeding heart eco-lefty.
It was interesting to have the debate because unusually for internet debates, we managed to disagree with each other without squabbling or name-calling, and I think we respect each other’s right to an opinion, even though we disagree with those opinions. It would be nice if the people running our country could manage the same level of debate.
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[...] I touched on in part one, not everyone agrees with the idea that business should be forced to promote equality of [...]