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Originally Posted by nekokami
Seems reasonable.
How can we measure starting line equality, and what is appropriate to do to make it more equal?
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I don't know that we really can and also be morally justified. E.g. say you have two students and one is twice as smart as the other. (For this example don't worry about the metric, just assume it is true.) We really can't make the less smart one smarter. (Although that might be possible in the future.) But we could (using surgery or drugs) dumb the smart one down. I doubt that any of us here would think that was a good thing to do even though it could provide equality.
I think we need to realize that in any competition, some will perform better than others. Do we need everyone to be the president of the US? Who would pick up the garbage then? And should we pay the two jobs the same wage?
I realize I tend to think of mathematical equality but I don't want equality. If I outperform you I think I should receive more benefit. To my engineer mind, that represents our democratic, capitalistic society and I think it's the right way to be. If I didn't think that, I'd either go somewhere else or try to change it. Since I don think that, I will strive against those who do try to change it.
I try very hard to look at everyone (as much as possible) as a unique individual - different from every other individual. Personally I feel that I deal more equitably with people when I do that than I would if I looked at people as statistics.