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Equality of outcome won't help us now
Opinion: Welfare is not as much of a safety net as it is a pleasure.
I am filled with a certain sense of gratification that those of left leaning assurances will be bothered by the controversial title of this article. These are the words of a contrarian no doubt.
I do not wish to justify inequalities in the words that will follow, but merely wish to make people think twice before wrongly assuming that the left way would be a better alternative for Ireland. Even in these turbulent times of fiscal scarcity, the left would spend more. They would also increase taxes and borrow even more money; our debts would be ever increasing and our grandchildren would be the ones to suffer. If you want proof of this, then read the Labour party’s proposed policies.
As a libertarian, I view individual freedom as vital; small government as a logical answer and limited public expenditure as financially sensible. It is my view that limited public expenditure and an absence of welfare would grant you more independence and would give you all the more reason to make something of yourself. The less public expenditure, the less ‘waste’ there would be. It’s less likely that something would go wrong if the state were to have less money also.
Returning to the main topic, it’s true that equality of outcome would not create a wealthier society; it would only make people poorer. Not only that, but it would also destroy one’s motivation to succeed. I say this because if every outcome was the same for all, if wealth was distributed equally, then from the moment of birth our destiny and our lifestyle would have been written for us already; we would know what we would become before we even became it. This would be depressing, oppressing and quite close to totalitarianism.
Another reason why both equality of outcome and equality in the distribution of wealth are unfair is because there is no such thing as a universal work initiative; therefore, why should everyone get paid the same? Why should the better workers earn the same as the lazy workers?
It can only be said that those on the left do not seem to realise that some people succeed and some do not, some earn money and some make it. Just as we are all of equal moral worth, we are simultaneously all of different potentials. Therefore, failure and success are two bound locations for everyone.
It’s important that we accept that socio-economic divide is inevitable. A social hierarchy would not be something I would wish to endorse (as I said before, I am not trying to justify inequalities), but a social hierarchy is inevitable. It is so because we do inherently look for superiority over others; whether it’s our addresses, the cars we drive; our professions, the way we dress or what university we go to or may have gone to at one time. Yes, subconsciously we do like to dominate others in this way. Let me give you an example: if you were to enter a competition to win an Aston Martin DB9 and if you were so fortunate as to win, your first drive in such a beautiful car would not be in a desert where no one can see you, but around your local village, town or city where everyone can see you and maybe say “I wish I was him”.
If you still don’t believe me, then ask yourself: Do players and football fans of any winning team ever congratulate the opposition directly after a match, before commencing their celebration? No, they stand in front of the disheartened opposition chanting slogans such as: “WE WON!” Yet again this is us trying to create artificial and momentary superiority over others.
If the recession has taught us anything, it’s that we need to rely less on the state. Less reliance on the state would usually mean that our day to day lives would be less affected or not affected at all by cuts which might occur in frontline services in the public sector. We need to be more independent and try not to acknowledge certain temptations, like welfare. I say this because welfare is not as much of a safety net, as it is a pleasure. It’s logical to say that all these cuts to frontline services would not be necessary if our public expenditure was smaller.
Necessity is a key word here. Let’s put more effort into ensuring that the state provides a good police force and a high standard of education for our children. As I said before, let’s rely less on the state and more on us. This is the beauty of individual freedom.
As Jack Nicholson says at the start of Scorsese’s ‘The Departed’ “No one gives it to you, you have to take it”. That way, success would be even sweeter.
By: Cormac Declan O’Malley
