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WillowOne's Positions

Equality of opportunity

My Positions

  1. Maximising individual freedom and autonomy, while safeguarding equality of opportunity, is the most effective way to promote collective well-being.
  2. Equality of opportunity should strictly select on only those attributes necessary for success in a given position, and should fully disregard all other attributes (see Colourblind social policy).
  3. Equality of opportunity is not the same as a level playing field at birth, which is unachievable, nor the same as equality of outcome, which is undesirable. It is the principle that the doors should be open to anyone with the relevant capacity, and that nothing irrelevant should close them.

Notes

  1. Formal and substantive equality of opportunity. The formal version (no legal barriers; positions open to all) is necessary but not sufficient. If the only route to a position runs through an expensive education, the position is formally open to everyone and actually open to the rich. Substantive equality of opportunity requires that the means to develop the relevant capacity (education, healthcare, basic security in childhood) be available regardless of circumstance. This is the strongest argument for universal public education and healthcare, and it is an argument from opportunity, not from outcome.
  2. What it does not require. It does not require that every group be represented in every position in proportion to its share of the population. Groups differ in their interests, cultures, and choices, and a disparity in outcome is not, by itself, evidence of a barrier (see Equality of outcome). Treating every disparity as discrimination leads to policies that discriminate in order to correct it.
  3. What it does require. That selection be made on relevant criteria, honestly applied. Where a disparity arises from an irrelevant criterion being used, whether openly or through unexamined habit, that is a genuine failure of equal opportunity and should be corrected. The correction is to remove the irrelevant criterion, not to add a compensating one.
  4. Why it promotes well-being. A society that allocates positions by relevant capacity gets better surgeons, engineers, and teachers than one that allocates them by birth, connection, or quota. The benefit accrues to everyone, including those who did not get the position. And a society in which people believe they can rise by their own efforts is more stable and less resentful than one in which they believe the outcome is fixed.
  5. Luck remains. Equality of opportunity does not and cannot neutralise the luck of birth: of talent, temperament, health, or family. See Wealth and Luck. The aim is not to abolish luck but to prevent it compounding into permanent advantage, and to ensure that bad luck does not close the doors entirely.

Personal Context

  1. I left school at sixteen with average grades and built a career in web development without a degree (see About me).

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