Equality of Outcome Is Equality of Misery

“All men have equal rights, but not to equal things.” – Edmund Burke

Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian mathematician trained in physics and mathematics, was interested in many fields of study, i.e., sociology, civil engineering, economics, political science, and philosophy. As a Renaissance scholar at the Lausanne School of Economics, he contributed to elite theory.

The Social Democrat fringe of the left is seeking equality of outcomes and are enforcing DEI hiring practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Elite theory argues that real power in any society is held by a small group with access to high paying jobs, resources, and organizations. This group includes politicians, federal judges, corporate executives, billionaires, military high ranks, university professors, think tanks, and the mainstream media.

Pareto analyzed choices that consumers made and drew conclusions important to the area of income distribution. He helped develop the area of microeconomics. The concept of Pareto efficiency in microeconomics was established based on his claim that income follows a Pareto distribution, a composite of his observations that 80% of wealth in Italy belonged to 20% of the population.

Income distribution reflects how a nation’s total income or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is distributed across the nation’s population.

The Pareto Principle is a rule based on observations that “80 percent of effects tend to come from 20 percent of causes.” This can be money, wealth, time, or other variables.

A good expression of “misery loves company” is the communists’ effort to make everyone equal, paying them equally, and working them equally. The result was an outcome of equal misery.

The Social Democrat fringe of the left is seeking equality of outcomes and are enforcing DEI hiring practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Regardless of a person’s motivation, ability, achievement, training, education, the left wants equality of outcomes at all costs.

The amount of skill embodied by the workforce is defined economically as human capital. Human capital is measured by the amount of education and training. One variable that was never considered was ability and the type of education that a student pursues. It is painfully evident that many young Americans opt for higher education in fields that are not helpful in finding professional employment.

"We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us”

They have a useless college diploma. Their levels of ability to survive as young adults in a more complex society are lower than previous generations.

The population at large produces value within any group but there are intrinsic disparities in achievement based on the dramatic differences in ability and the tendency to want to work an eight to five job.

The overachiever 20 percent of the population have high ability and high propensity to work and thus produce most value within any group – innovations, inventions, solutions, and opportunities.

The other 80 percent of the population produces some value as well, however, regardless of their contributions, they demand the same equal reward (outcome). They want to rig the system in such a way that everybody, regardless of their individual contribution, receives the same equal reward. They demand equity in the name of fairness.

In the communist system, when the motivated workers received the same pay (reward) as those who pretended to work and hid during the workday or presented doctor’s excuses for weeks on end for non-existent illnesses (after they bribed the doctors), the high producers stopped working so hard and became slackers just like the unproductive workers. The pay remained the same and the workers, blue or white collar, followed the motto, “we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”

The result was equal misery for all. Nobody contributed more than the least of them and the race to the bottom began and stayed there for decades.

The enforcement of equal outcomes under socialism/communism produced equal misery, uniformity, depression, and oppression. Did the Communist Party in charge of the country care about the state of the population? No, those in power only cared about themselves and their immediate families.

Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, Ileana Writes is a freelance writer, author, radio commentator, and speaker. Her books, “Echoes of Communism”, “Liberty on Life Support” and “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” “Communism 2.0: 25 Years Later” are available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.