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Comment by smspence | Hacker News Reader

Extreme liberals do not want "equal opportunity". What they actually want is "equal outcome in all circumstances", which is obviously never going to happen, not even under socialism/communism.

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Who are these "extreme liberals"? Note that socialism and communism do not propose an "equal outcome in all circumstances".

Mao certainly attempted something like this with land reform. But you have a good point that it was never really equal, as he was living it up in the Forbidden City while the poor were starving.

No one has lived in the Forbidden City since 1924.

Oops, you're right, I was confusing that with Zhongnanhai for some reason.

No, I meant that socialism/communism do not state, in their list of goals, "an equal outcome in all circumstances". This is not about hypocrisy, but about misrepresenting socialism and communism.

The maxim "to each according to his need" is diametrically opposed to "equal outcome in all circumstances."

This would appear to imply that our needs are somehow 'diametrically' unequal. My experience has been that everyone needs roughly the same basic necessities.

How would you resolve this?

An 85 year old woman with a serious illness has very different needs than a 22 year old man who's healthy.

Just stuff like that. Different people need different amounts of things. It's not a particularly controversial statement.

This is a straw-man argument and not valid.

I would go so far as to call it an extreme straw-man.

And a very liberal interpretation of liberalism

And a very loose interpretation of socialism and communism to boot.

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