Pres. Biden has issued an “Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities.” Before the election, VP Harris posted a tweet and video: “There’s a big difference between equality and equity.”
Equality means equal treatment, fair competition and impartially judged outcomes. Equity means equal outcomes, achieved if necessary by unequal treatment, biased competition and preferential judging.
Only a powerful central government could impose the intensive—and expensive—programs of social intervention, ideological re-education and economic redistribution necessary to achieve equal outcomes.
That is why radical claims for unequal treatment must be carefully buried in word salads praising equity and social justice.
These evasions raise a hard question: isn’t equity just a new name for the oldest program for achieving equal outcomes -- socialism?