The Conservatory - 15

Not every job that is necessary for society to function is desirable to everyone, nor is every job equally easy. Since most people differ from one another, their skills and interests vary.

To ensure that the less desirable, or more complicated and difficult but vitally important jobs are completed, they must offer higher levels of remuneration.
Equality of opportunity means no arbitrary barriers should stand in the way of people achieving their goals, gaining employment or living comfortably. These opportunities should be available to everyone, based on their talent and effort. Equality of opportunity does not conflict with freedom; it is the freedom to pursue an interest and gain reward for effort contributed to society, or another person.
Equality of outcome, by contrast, doesn’t give everyone the same opportunities, but aims to ensure that everyone is absolutely equal in the end. However, if rewards are equal to all, then we lose the incentive to work, or work harder. In turn this decreases aspiration and initiative, which is what has led society to progress in the past. This development has increased the wellbeing of everyone in the developed nations.
If the Government must ensure that everyone has the same standard of living, taken to its end conclusion, they must not only dictate income, but they must also dictate expenditure. If people are allowed the free will to spend their income how they like, through luck, choice or ignorance, some will spend their income less wisely. By preventing freedom to choose an occupation, or how we spend our money, equality of outcome will limit economic and political freedom. To ensure that the more difficult and unpleasant roles are filled people must either be rewarded for taking them on, or given no choice. For the state to determine your occupation is contrary to free will.
This shows the weakness of ideology. A pure meritocracy does not offer true equality of opportunity, as some people are limited by their environment, which may cause poor health outcomes. Some measure of equality of outcome may help to promote greater equality of opportunity in future generations.
Equality of outcome removes poverty as measured in relative terms, as a proportion of the average wage in a society, but it will result in greater absolute poverty by lowering incentives to work. 
People should be allowed to do well in whatever field they choose, or to forgo income in favour of free time if that is what they want. The Government’s role is not to guarantee and manipulate society so that everyone has the same life, but to ensure that everyone has the same set of opportunities to take advantage of, or not if they so choose.

Posted 12:12am Monday 12th July 2010 by Edward Greig.