Unfair Rules

This country is about equal opportunity, not equal outcome. How many times have we heard that? It’s the American way to give everybody the same fair chance at success. What a wonderful theory.

So let’s talk about all the equal opportunity here in the U-S of A, shared by rich and poor alike: 

Sure. Like equal education opportunity — decrepit public schools, which in so many cities get failing marks, versus the high-tuition private academies where any parent who loves his children would send them, IF he could afford to. Healthcare that is first-class for many … Third World for millions of others. Safe neighborhoods … usually affluent suburbs and other gated communities are safe … the not-so-rich take their lives in their hands every time they go out.

Ah yes, the level playing field. Let’s face it: A stacked deck is not equal-opportunity. And for every story of someone who is able to wrench him- or herself out of the cycle of poverty, there are millions more who stay trapped. Meanwhile, those who have made it never look back, and the rest of us who had the fortune of good birth or good luck ignore the rest and bitterly resist any sacrifices we might need to make to see that everyone in our community gets the same fair chance, an equal opportunity.