Equity

The concept of Equity mandates that equal outcomes for any human endeavor across groups must be accomplished; otherwise the endeavor is assumed to be corrupt.  For example, consider a business with a hierarchical structure, from the CEO at the top, to the lowest level employees.  In between those extremes are various levels of responsibility and compensation.  “Equity” dictates that at every level, the demographics of the employees must match that of the locality where the business is located.  Sometimes, the equity is mandated by governmental bodies; other times, by the organizations themselves.  The human resources departments are usually tasked with the accomplishment of the equity, and when there is governmental oversight, the companies will often require the services of lawyers, and probably even the choice of lawyers assigned must be equitable.

One problem is the question of which identity groups to be demographically considered: should it be race?  Ethnicity? Gender? Sexual preference? Religion? Age? Height?  Weight?  Appearance?  And there are also subcategories.  For example, if the determining group is “race”, how is that dealt with?  Is it a “they all look alike” rationale?  Or is it more sophisticated?  For example, among legal immigrant groups in the US, Nigerians come near the top in terms of wealth, education, and productivity.  So is it equitable to the descendants from slaves or immigrants from the West Indies to be in the same group with Nigerians?  Then the hiring – while being equitable by race – will not be equitable for the sub-groups.

But the problem is that a business or organization has not ordinarily been formed to achieve “social justice”.  They are looking for value, not group balance:  who – regardless of group – is best suited for a job, considering intelligence, conscientiousness, and productivity.

And there is another important issue: preference.  Consider the equity concept that there should be equal representation between men and women, since demographically the divide between the sexes is close to 50%.  In Scandinavia –  where “gender equity” is very prominent in the cultural and political realms — large country-wide studies have shown that female nurses outnumber male by 20 to 1.  And conversely, in STEM occupations such as engineering, men outnumber women by the same ratio.  What this means is that biology is ruling: women are more inclined to nursing, and men to STEM.  So efforts to achieve gender equity in such settings would seem to be anti-scientific, foolish and counterproductive.

The track record of Marxist regimes in the 20th century who applied radical equity by lethal force should be a lesson to today’s Social Justice advocates.

Critique:  Consider the following comments by University of Toronto Psychology Professor Jordan Peterson, describing the major points discussed in a lecture he gave dealing with equity:

This is a talk I gave in Calgary, Alberta on Mar 25, 2017, for a political action group, Generation Screwed. I wrote it out, and read it, which I rarely do, because I was developing a new argument, and wanted to ensure I made it properly. During the talk, I discuss the increasingly widespread demands for so-called “equity,” or equality of outcome. This is the most dangerous idea that the postmodern neo-Marxists have yet championed. Equity cannot be attained, even if it was desirable, because there is no limit to the ways in which people can be categorized. Race, sex, gender identity, and sexual proclivity — the current contenders for primacy of identity among the radical activist leftists — are no more valid as categories of human beings than attractiveness, personality, political belief, intelligence, health status, or economic class. Thus, the demand for equity can never be met. The equity authoritarians must be stopped. Now. There are few doctrines as dangerous to the rights of individual citizens or to social institutions. Learn the arguments. Push back. Now.

Additional videos dealing with Equity may be found here.

 

 

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.