On equality

 So, while a lot of society gets its ideas of egalitarianism from the enlightenment and its ideas of god given natural rights, being a humanist, i dont like justifying anything in a god, so I wanted to talk about the notion of equality secularly.

Equality is...a good idea. We tried hierarchical societies in the past and they just led to some people going around doing whatever they wanted and harming others. The ideas that kings were subject to the law as per the magna carta, that all humans were "created" equal, etc, are all hard fought for marks of progress to make a fairer, more just society for everyone involved. And these liberal ideas are just...inherently just. We can see how everyone benefits from them to some extent, and no one is above the law, and no one is below it. I think a better question is under what is inequality justified? Most past justifications were in divine right of kings, some idea of "natural law" (which is a lot of nonsense to me), etc. I mean, under modern liberalism, equality just seems to be given as the ideal. Humans are humans, all humans are equal.

Right now, the only inequalities we have, at least on paper, are economic inequalities, and these are based on the idea of meritocracy. People earn their stance in society through merit. They work for it. Yes, once again, the work thing again. But the only purpose of doing this is to motivate people to work, it only makes sense for those who work to have higher standards of living than those who dont. It's a motivator. but that's one of the only moral justifications. We have arguments about market relations and voluntaryism leading to inequalities too, but taxation can offset and fix that. We can even reconsider property rights themselves, although property is considered sacrosanct, even if this leads to major suffering. 

We should have debates related to the market and property rights, and I dont think some level of taxation or redistribution of wealth is out of the question. I dont think that being born in the right place, or even work, fully justifies property or the levels of inequality we have in our society. I think that what does is necessity. If inequality is necessary to motivate people to do the necessary work for society to function, so be it. But beyond that, I support greater equality. I really think the liberal default is all humans should be equal and any inequalities justified. if some level of inequality arises from voluntary market transactions, so be it, we can correct with that via taxation. If we need some level of inequality to justify people to work, so be it. But beyond that I'm not really big on inequality, and don't think there's much to justify it existing.