the question of equality is a difficult one…
it is argued that those who benefit economically are ones,
who are superior to those who don’t… in other words, bill gates
has his billions because he is in some fashion, superior to me or to most people…
yet this information is slanted a certain way to justify wealth…
for example, it assumes that wealth is the creation of some sort
of superiority of some people over other people…
yet, bill gates for example, might be a terrible teacher,
and thus others have superiority over him in this field…
and we applaud those who can teach, but we don’t pay them, what
we give to gates… this superiority is limited to certain aspects…
everyone has superiority of some sort over everyone else…
that in reality means, because some have superiority in some area’s
but not in all area’s, that we are equal, because in some areas we
have someone who is superior to us and in other area’s, they are not equal…
so, someone might be able to run a 4.30 mile whereas my best was 4.53,
so they are superior to me in running the mile, where as in cross-country, I might be better,
where my best at crystal springs cross country course was 16.24 and their
best was 16.30… or I am able to do math better or play chess better…
this idea that we are in some areas better then others and worse then
others in different area’s is what creates equality…not the superiority in
one area, but in the mixing and maxing of being better in one area
and in some area’s of being worse… we are equal because in which area do
we decide is most important? is my being better in one area make me
superior? or is your superiority in another area make you better?
Herein lies equality because we cannot decide or be able to choose
what area’s of superiority really makes us superior or be worse off…
we are equal because we are different in our area’s of competence
and different in our area’s of not so competent…and that makes
us equal… I am equal to bill gates because I can do things he can’t
and he can do things I can’t and how do we choose which things are the
most important things to do?
this means we have not only political equality but economic equality…
for the things I can do are different then you and the things you can do
are different then me… the question becomes, how do you judge such things?
How do you decide which superiority is worth 1 million dollars a year
and which superiority is worth 30 thousand a year? One might say, the
creation of profit is the judge of which amount one might get…
this however leaves a major problem… which is, profit is nihilism
because it isn’t about values, but about a thing, money is not a value,
but a thing… creating profit doesn’t involve values like love or justice
or hope, in fact, profit denies values because they don’t increase profit…
being a just person or a person who loves won’t improve your profit margin…
in fact, it will lower your profit margin and thus business can only promote
profit and not values… thus negating those values and that is nihilism…
so, is bill gates a good person, a kind person, a person who loves?
it doesn’t matter because his wealth isn’t predicated on those values…
in fact, he will make greater profit if he isn’t kind or a good person
because those values will harm his profit margin… so allowing
the profit margin to determine the worth a person is to negate
any values they have like love or justice or honor because there is no
profit in those values…it is by understanding that profit or money,
doesn’t determine a person worth, tells us that we are in fact, equal…
Kropotkin