[satya71]

Equality of opportunity is not measurable. Equality of outcome is. Given that we know some variables such as race, sex, and sexual preferences shouldn't affect outcome, we should look for equality of outcome without correlation with these variables.

[logicchains]

>Equality of opportunity is not measurable. Equality of outcome is. Given that we know some variables such as race, sex, and sexual preferences shouldn't affect outcome, we should look for equality of outcome without correlation with these variables.

Why shouldn't these variables affect outcomes? To assert that any two groups should have identical economic outcomes, one first has to prove that those two groups are identical with regard to all preferences and genetic factors that can affect economic outcomes.

For example, sex may correlate with career choice, and career choice correlates with economic outcomes. Race has been found in some studies to correlate with results on IQ tests, which have been found to correlate with economic outcomes. To assert that such factors shouldn't affect economic outcomes, one hence first has to rule out all such potential correlations.

[logicchains]

To anyone who downvoted, I'd be happy to see arguments refuting any of the following:

* A correlation between career choice and economic outcomes.

* A correlation between sex and career preferences.

* A correlation between race and IQ test results.

* A correlation between IQ test results and economic outcomes.

[kul]

It might not be strictly measurable, but giving everyone access to free, high quality education and healthcare get you a long way there.

[alacombe]

oh, so "being a nurse" should not correlate with "being a female", or "working in STEM" should not correlate with "being good at math and having with poor verbal/social skills".

Am I correct ?

[dang]

This breaks the HN guidelines, which say:

"Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them."

So would you please not take threads in that direction, whence they never return?

[alacombe]

I do believe there is something directly related to this thread. My intention was to point out the fact that the concept of "equality of outcome" is an erroneous metric. I specifically amended the second part of my comment to omit orientation of gender and focus on the personality traits.

That is, two grade A student may end up in totally different outcome, skewing statistics which would limit themselves to phenotypical attributes.

[dang]

The topic is education in Canada, not equality of outcome vs. equality of opportunity. Off-topic tangents can be fine when they're concrete, but generic tangents inevitably head off in a worse direction, and generic ideological tangents are the worst.

More on this point at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14912821 if anyone's interested.