As I'm reading chapter 5, I thought I would just jot down a few thoughts I have on equality and the such :). I really like the fact that the book emphasizes that the American society has developed into one in which equality of opportunity is emphasized rather than equality of results. When I first read that sentence, I couldn't help but to immediately think about welfare and how, if we truly are a society who doesn't believe that everyone should have the same amount of salary or property, it clashes with this idea. After a second though, I took a step back and thought about innocent children not yet given any opportunities who were born into welfare dependent families and I wondered if it would be politically correct for me to believe that welfare should only go to those who are disabled or have children. Then I remembered human nature and I realized that eventually, with welfare only going to families with children, desperate people would start to have children simply to receive welfare which is a truly terrible/depressing idea. Ugh.
Then, of course, I began to think about affirmative action. At it's base level, I believe in the idea of affirmative action and it's attempts to even the playing field, but I have some fundamental issues with how it is done. I think one thing that is important to remember is that affirmative action isn't just showering minority kids with scholarship money and college acceptance which, having heard the side comments made every time affirmative action in brought up, I think some people might actually believe.
(tired. I'll finish later) :)
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