Equalization

“ But the daily increasing enlightenment of England is fast closing up such silly distinctions, and every change in institutions leads to further equalization. This equalization is to the tradespeople a consummation devoutly to be wished for, and this class therefore is never averse to change. As a rule, therefore, the tradespeople are liberals and radicals. ”

“ We do not ourselves regard our analysis of identification as exhaustive, but it is enough for our present purpose that we should revert to this one feature—its demand that equalization shall be consistently carried through. We have already heard in the discussion of the two artificial groups, church and army, that their preliminary condition is that all their members should be loved in the same way by one person, the leader. Do not let us forget, however, that the demand for equality in a group applies only to its members and not to the leader. ”

“ LVIII. The costs and burdens of the whole military affairs of the Confederation are to be borne equally by all the Federal States and those who belong to them so that neither the advantage nor the overburdening of individual States or classes is admissible in principle. Where the equal distribution of the burdens cannot, from natural circumstances, take place without injury to public welfare, the equalization must be settled in the way of legislation, according to the principles of equity. ”

“ Laws concerning the implementation of the equalization of burdens may, with the consent of the Bundesrat, stipulate that in the field of equalization benefits, they shall be executed partly by the Federation and partly by the Länder acting as agents of the Federation, and that the relevant powers vested in the Federal Government and the competent highest Federal authorities by virtue of Article 5 shall be wholly or partly delegated to the Federal Equalization Office. ”

“ He thought that in a new colony the equalization might be accomplished without difficulty, not so easily when a state was already established; and that then the shortest way of compassing the desired end would be for the rich to give and not to receive marriage portions, and for the poor not to give but to receive them. ”

“ We are told that no scheme for the equalization of men can succeed; that at first it was physical strength that determined the inequalities; that this at length gave way to the power of cunning, and that still later it became intelligence in general that determined the place of individuals in society. This last, it is maintained is now, in the long run, in the most civilized races and the most enlightened communities, the true reason why some occupy lower and others higher positions in the181 natural strata of society. ”

“ Now, in order to abolish this equal right to use force and stratagem,—this equal right to do evil, the sole source of the inequality of benefits and injuries,—they commenced to make covenants either implied or expressed, and established a balance. Then these agreements and this balance were intended to secure to all equal comfort; then, by the law of contradictions, if isolation is the principle of inequality, society must produce equality. The social balance is the equalization of the strong and the weak; for, while they are not equals, they are strangers ”

“ In the Virginia case, the court below noted that the equalization program was already “afoot and progressing” (103 F. Supp. 337, 341) ; since then, we have been advised, in the Virginia Attorney General’s brief on reargument, that the program has now been completed. In the Delaware case, the court below similarly noted that the state’s equalization program was well under way. ”

“ The equalization they call for can only be realized by placing an equal proportion of the means necessary for gaining a livelihood within the reach of all. Every ownership exceeding this minimum would be divided to increase the necessary quota. ”

“ The highest socialistic conception is not that which contemplates an equitable distribution of property and labor. But assuming a more rational ground, it believes in equal rights to all; is based upon a right proportion of motives rather than upon the equalization of property considerations. ”

“ Such is the event of all compulsory equalizations. They pull down what is above; they never raise what is below; and they depress high and low together beneath the level of what was originally the lowest. ”

“ On the other, the workmen claiming everywhere political equality, which cannot long be denied; and education spreading, so that what between the improvement in the education of the working-class and the continued amazing fatuity of that of the upper classes, there is a distinct tendency to equalization here ”

“ In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals will be augmented at the expense of the community at large. ”

“ That woman said that when laws are equal for men and women, then advantages will be, and that every step we can make toward equalization is a step in the direction toward a fairer deal for women. Suffrage? ”

“ So that, in so small a platoon as that of even five, you will find the full complement of all that five men can earn. Taking five and five throughout the kingdom, they are equal: therefore an error with regard to the equalization of their wages by those who employ five, as farmers do at the very least, cannot be considerable. ”

“ There is a military commutation tax of $2, and all persons neglecting to pay it or to pay the poll tax are liable to imprisonment. A state board of equalization has been established to insure equitable taxation. ”

“ The revenue system is based on the general property tax and there is a State Board of Equalization. Each year $100,000 is set aside for the sinking fund for the payment of outstanding bonds as fast as they become due. ”

“ In my view, the equalizing theory can be enforced only by ignoring the habitual discrimination of men and women, as forming separate classes, and regarding all alike as simply persons, — as human beings. ”

“ But laws for enriching, in their commencement and throughout their operation, are regardless of merit; and the equalizing theory pretends both to keep property equal among evanescent beings, and to supersede mental inequalities. ”

“ But what does the State hold as the representative of the Race?—all its Citizens, without a single exception. Were there some Individuals either not taken into account at all in the common purpose, or not taken into account with all their powers, while the rest were included,—then the former would enjoy all the advantages of the union without bearing all the attendant burdens, and there would thus be inequality. Only where all without exception are taken into account, is equality the result. ”

“ In no situation, and under no circumstance, does the equalizing system of America appear to such advantage as in meetings of this sort. All distinctions of rank, education, and wealth are for the time voluntarily laid aside. ”

“ That EQUALITY, consisting only in EQUALITY OF CONDITIONS, that is, OF MEANS, and not in EQUALITY OF COMFORT,—which it is the business of the laborers to achieve for themselves, when provided with equal means,—in no way violates justice and equite. ”

“ Would he be admitted to an equal share in your political rights?—would he ever be allowed to cross the threshold of your doors?—would any of you give your daughter to his son, or your son to his daughter?—would you, in any one particular, admit him to the footing of equality which any man with a white skin would claim, whose ability and worth had so raised him from the lower degrees of the social scale. ”

“ If we take rights to pertain to results, and then say that rights must be equal, we come to say that men have a right to be equally happy, and so on in all the details. Rights should be equal, because they pertain to chances, and all ought to have equal chances so far as chances are provided or limited by the action of society. This, however, will not produce equal results, but it is right just because it will produce unequal results—that is, results which shall be proportioned to the merits of individuals. ”

“ Wherefore, since the law is the bond of civil society, and the justice of the law equal, by what rule can the association of citizens be held together, if the condition of the citizens be not equal? For if the fortunes of men cannot be reduced to this equality if genius cannot be equally the property of all—rights, at least, should be equal among those who are citizens of the same republic. ”

“ To accomplish this it should be the special aim of every one possessed of wisdom enough to comprehend a common logical proposition to endeavor to bring about this equality by diffusing the deductions of it, in all possible ways, among both classes. Let the various producing and exchanging classes exist as they do, but let their relations be governed by such rule of law as shall render them equal, both as to caste and to the benefits to be derived from an equal interest in the common cause of the brotherhood of mankind. ”

“ It is, however, quite impossible to lay down a hard and fast general rule concerning the amount of inequality between the equal and the unequal States, as everything depends upon the circumstances and conditions of the special case. ”

“ Equality demands, as the Socialists are well aware, that all incomes shall be wages paid by the State; and it implies further, as we shall presently have occasion to observe—that equal wages shall be paid to all individuals, not because they are equally productive, but because they are all equally human. ”

“ Those who are exempt from domestic subjection, can in no intelligible sense be said to be equal in point of rights to those who are under it. If universal equality, then, were the object that ought to be in view, universal subjection, as strict as domestic subjection, would be the only means of obtaining it. ”

“ By the latter clause the declaration is plainly applicable to the States, while the earlier words assert the equality of all persons before the law,—a fruitful principle, assuring to all the same rights. Inter pares non est potestas, “Among equals there is no superiority,” is a received maxim of law, expressing a natural truth. Therefore, where all are equal, there can be no Slavery; so that, in declaring equality before the law, you make Slavery, alike with superiority, impossible. ”

“ It follows from these facts, that equity in the exchange of labour, or the products of labour, cannot be arrived at by measuring the labour of different persons by time merely. Equity is the equality of burdens according to the requirements of each person, or, in other words, the assumption of as much burden by each person as has to be assumed by somebody, on his account, so that no one shall be living by imposing burdens upon others. ”

“ Equity literally means equalness; and if it be admitted that there were even the vaguest ideas of equity in these primitive eras, it must be admitted that there was some appreciation of the equalness of men's liberties to pursue the objects of life—some appreciation, therefore, of the essential principle of national equilibrium. ”

“ By the system for equalising property among orders, one child gets a third of the whole, one hundred and fifty another third, and eleven millions nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, eight hundred and forty nine children, the remaining third by that for equalising property among individuals, each child would receive an equal share. ”

“ And the same equality will exist between the persons and between the things concerned; for as the latter the things concerned-are related, so are the former; if they are not equal, they will not have what is equal, but this is the origin of quarrels and complaints-when either equals have and are awarded unequal shares, or unequals equal shares. ”

“ When I mention equal distribution of property, I would not be understood to mean such an equality as never existed, nor can exist but in idea; but that general, that comparative equality, which leaves to every man the absolute and safe possession of the fruits of his labors; which softens offensive distinctions, and curbs pride, by leaving every order of men in some degree dependent on the other ”

“ Each of these two classes is relieved of its degradation; no class is burdened by taxation or by the conscription beyond its due; all persons and all property find in the government, in the administration, in the tribunals, in the gendarme, the same reliable protection.—So much for equity and the true spirit of equality.—Let us now turn around and consider envy and the bad spirit of equality. ”

“ It can as easily become the master of the industry applied to the earth, as of that applied to the products of the earth. The portion of a nation subject to supply the income of a paper capital, is not in fact in a state of society. Union or association implies equality, But what equality exists between infliction and suffering, between extortion and payment? Can a society or association be formed of a party of matters and a party of slaves? ”

“ Edmond's Bury,’ appears to have been written in answer to some calumny under which the author was smarting. ‘The Order of Equalitie, contriued and divulged as a generall Directorie for common Sessements; serving for the indifferent defraying, taxing, & rating of common Impositions and Charges, lyable to Citties, Townes, or Villages,’ &c., Cambridge, 1604, 4to. The last-named work, which is perhaps the most important, is an appeal for proportional equalisation of the incidence of taxation. ”

“ European laws or framework laws shall establish measures to ensure the application of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of women and men in matters of employment and occupation, including the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value. ”