We cannot reasonably say that a system that treats everyone equally is fair when peoples' starting points in life are so different. People can only enjoy equal opportunities to succeed when there is a level playing field. The angle of that playing field is now so steep that only the most brilliant of those who find themselves at the bottom can scramble up. To use another metaphor, it’s like a hurdler competing against a sprinter without any extra time allowance.
Compensating for circumstances of birth
The unfairness starts at birth, and once a child has grown up, it is usually too late to correct for it. We haven’t done enough to tackle substantive barriers to opportunity - the ‘unfair’ inequalities that are caused by the circumstances of someone’s birth. Where they are born. Their family’s income. Whether they are disabled. The additional hurdles that they might face because of their gender, or ethnicity, or sexuality, or religion, or any other aspect of their identity.
Removing barriers
A truly fair society would give each of us the same substantive opportunities to realise their potential, regardless of the circumstances into which we were born. This means removing the many structural barriers that face people born into disadvantaged circumstances, so that they do not need to be incredibly talented and hardworking to benefit from the same opportunities as everyone else. And we must recognise and respond to the fact that unequal outcomes in one generation lead to unequal opportunities in the next.
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