America’s Disunity: Equal Opportunity or Equal Outcomes?

The U.S. is disunited by many issues. One is whether to promote equal opportunity or equal outcomes for its citizens.

Supporters of equal outcomes posit that we should not tolerate large differences in standard of living. They argue that many of these differences emanate from prior injustices and need to be rectified retroactively with reparations or prospectively by social engineering and government welfare.

Those favoring equal opportunity note its consistency with the Constitution. They argue that to the extent equal opportunity has been denied, retroactive attempts to rectify are hopelessly unworkable. And efforts to rectify prospectively often involve discrimination—racially balancing student enrollment, for example, by favoring one race over another.

In the Bible, Apostle Paul touched on this debate in a letter to the church at Corinth. He wrote his letter, because some Corinthian church members thought themselves superior to others, creating harmful disunity. Paul compared church members to members of the human body. He noted that a foot and a hand are not equal in the sense of being identical but are nevertheless important to the functioning of the whole body. And if the foot suffers pain, the whole body suffers with it.

Trying to view every American as important is not a solution to our disunity but is a laudable ideal. While few ideals are completely fulfilled, the attempt to fulfill this one has benefits. It is also consistent with God’s view of humanity and is a good starting point.