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All men are created equal, take 2

Maybe everyone is born with equal abilities, just in different areas.  I don't actually believe it, but it's possible.  The problem is the antisocial way different abilities are rewarded.

Being talented in math is a better path to success in our culture than being a good shot with a bow.  But it would have been reversed for most of human existence.  If society rewarded different traits more in line with their benefits to society, things would be better.

A friend of mine is a social worker who works with mentally retarded people.  Her late brother was a big time stockbroker.  He made umpteen times more money but she actually did more for society.

On the other hand, maybe he was just born with more ability or worked harder to develop his ability or just worked harder. But that isn't what I think.
 
I'm hoping to become a musician, but I guess that is all social and no survival. But I do know how to handle a bow
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Any healthy society needs a balance between industry, sevice and entertainment. We can't necessarily just reward everybody according to what they contribute to society. That's what the idea of communism is about; everybody contributes to society, even if they're doing a job that doesn't help themselves, and everybody is rewarded by society.

Peter
 
I think that the idea of monetary reembursement for work kind of muddles the whole idea of work, and that's a big source of these strange social disparities in modern society. It used to be that when you did work, it meant going to find food, water, shelter, or other necessities. The reward for such work was the resource that you gained as a result. Nobody gave you a paycheck. When two monkeys look back on the past month, they don't compare how many bananas they ate; if they ate enough, they're here and healthy, otherwise they're not. Money is just a shortcut for bartering, which is a shortcut for real work, so it's really no wonder that there's so much error between how much we contribute to the world around us and how much money we're rewarded as a result.
~Joe
 
i guess you need to define what exacly "equal" means. people are all made out of the same stuff, but we are not born with equal abilities, intelligence, structure, appearance, monetary assets, etc etc. we are all made/created out of the same stuff, it's like that Moby song: (We are all made of stars)
 
Equal?? Whats that? I do not see a lot of evidence of equality, whether in this country, or any other. I cannot see someone who plays a game, whether football, baseball, or basketball, can possibly make more money than someone who breaks their butt to earn a living for themselves or their family. Why is someone who plays for work, making more money than an officer of the law, or a telephone maintainance man, or a janitor who works nights? Something is wrong in a place that will pay millions to watch a game you could play yourself, and make excuses for why its all right. Big deal! No matter how hard I work, I get nothing extra. Even though people are ecstatic when I work on their problem, and fix it, I get nothing extra at all. Many times, not even thank you. I think our values are shot, and need to be re-evaluated. And paying extraordinairily high salaries to people who play pro sports, is way overboard in the lack of smarts category.
 
I don't know. The reason that a sports figure makes a lot of money is that they bring valut (entertainment) to tens of thousands of people every night. All those people feel it's worth it to shell out 30 bucks for a ticket to see them. No matter how benevolent or well-meaning a social worker is, and no matter how important it is that they do what they do, their scope is much more limited. They affect sometimes MUCH fewer people, even if their work is more "important." Also, in sports, if you don't pay the athelete, that just means more money for the owners, who REALLY don't do anything.

People are paid comensurate with the value they provide society. For some reason, people aren't willing to pay more to teachers, police, nurses, etc. That's something that I think should change. But those people who affect thousands or even millions of people with their inventions, talents, etc. should be rewarded for it. That's the capitalist way!

Capslock
 
I think the "all men (people) are created equal" statement is meant to be in the eyes of God... if you believe in that sort of thing. That would make sense.
 
Humans are not equal. Completely forgetting the the fact that people are born at different times in different places to different families etc, people are still different physically and mentally speaking (which to me is the same... "the mind is what the brain does" -national geographic article). You don't have to be mentally ill to be different from other people.
The brain is partially formed according to genes, and hormones are released/made according to genes too. many things like depression have something to do with genes, certain proteins make your memory better, etc.
... and that's not taking the environment into account.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I think the "all men (people) are created equal" statement is meant to be in the eyes of God... if you believe in that sort of thing. That would make sense.
I don't get that... how can "God" make you different but still think you're equal? how can he think all people are equal? I don't think all people are equal in God's mind either.  you have different religion, values, etc. as other people because you're NOT equal.
(ps for the mods- I'm in another computer. I haven't tried to log on from AOL)
 
"All men are created equal" is one of the stupidest lines I've ever heard/read.  Some people are born smart and some people are born not so smart.  They are obviously not equal.  One will succeed in life while the other will struggle.  If we were born equal, we'd all be clones of each other.  God certainly did not create us all equally.  He has good days and he has bad days
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  • #10
The the people who play pro football don't just happen to have the jobs that pay really well and are fun. People land pro football jobs because they have spend hours and hours of their childhoods practicing. Its also a great risk - many people who aspire to become professional sports players never make it into the big leauges.

"All men are created equal" refers to the fact that we are all fellow human beings, and that none of us is "better" than another. The reason being, when the declaration of indipendence was written, all European societies were divided into different classes, nobility being considered of more value than the lower classes.

We aren't equal - in fact, we are all created unique. There are those of us who like building, others like the farm, still others are artists. Everybody finds a niche in our capitalist society, wether it is a contribution or a harvest. As for me, I don't care how much money I can make, as long as I enjoy what I do.

Peter
 
  • #11
Ideally, it would be teriffic if everybody were on the same page with regard to being politically equal, and thus treated fairly. Unfortunately, that is not reality. On paper, in this country, the theory is in place - but not its application. Forget about physical. mental, and emotional equality. Not gonna happen.
 
  • #12
We shouldn't even strive for total equality.

What we should seek is a total lack of artificial institutional or prejudicial barriers to achievement and success. Everyone contributes to society in their own ways, and we need a huge spectrum of people to form a rich society.

Capslock
 
  • #13
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]People land pro football jobs because they have spend hours and hours of their childhoods practicing
you have to be strong (which has to do with genes), tall (genes again), and aggressive (what? testosterone can help).... it doesn't matter how much i try i could never even get into the school's football team (not that i want to anyway. I'm lazier than a sloth) cuz i'm too short.
 
  • #14
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JustLikeAPill @ Mar. 02 2005,7:09)]i guess you need to define what exacly "equal" means. people are all made out of the same stuff, but we are not born with equal abilities, intelligence, structure, appearance, monetary assets, etc etc.   we are all made/created out of the same stuff, it's like that Moby song:  (We are all made of stars)
JLAP YOUR BACK!!!!!!!!111111111 one oneone
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  • #16
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Bugweed @ Mar. 02 2005,9:48)]Equal?? Whats that? I cannot see someone who plays a game, whether football, baseball, or basketball, can possibly make more money than someone who breaks their butt to earn a living for themselves or their family. Something is wrong in a place that will pay millions to watch a game you could play yourself, and make excuses for why its all right.
Well said, I've always said that soldiers would be billionairs if only battle feilds had stadium seating
 
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