Berkley Center

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” These first words of the preamble of the Declaration of Independence are as powerful today as they were when they were written in 1776. Yet, equality has been a long and sustained battle here in the United States. When these words were written slavery abounded, only landowners could vote, and many states made it illegal for women to run for political office. Equality has, apparently, not been nearly as self-evident as we thought. Today more than ever, our perceptions of what it means to be equal and the moral value of creating equality are in question.

Certainly, if pressed, we all could agree that individuals are not entirely equal or we’d all be exactly the same. I am not as good at basketball as Jeremy Lin or as fast as Usaine Bolt, and I would assume that they do not possess the same talents and preferences that I do. Yet, our country is founded on the idea of men being created equal. It is perfectly “self-evident” that in fact, men are not identical and not truly equal at all. What our founding fathers, of course, meant is that under the law our liberties are equal. America has long held the ideal that all men deserve basic rights “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. For over 200 years we have sought to implement these words, and we have accomplished a lot. Generations before us have slowly eroded some discriminations that have long held people slave to public opinion.

Yet, with all the strides we’ve made, we still find aspects of inequality. Why can one man make millions, while another man can struggle to make ends meet on a weekly basis? The reason is simple. A disparity between economic groups is the result of people’s rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness that creates the gap in income. People are free to pursue their lives as they desire. Wealth is not a good measure of happiness; however, because of our nation’s promise of liberty, people should be allowed to pursue wealth if they see it as an avenue to happiness. Historically, legal plundering of the wealthy in order to give to the impoverished in no way has shown to lift families out of poverty. Government’s attack liberty in the name of equality and achieve neither. Yet when, so far in human history, countries pursue liberty, they come far closer to the notion of equality than in any other method thus created. Equality is important, but government cannot steal liberty for the sake of it. Liberty and freedom are innate rights. Liberty is a priori and meant for all people, not just poor people. Governments cannot close the gap of inequality; ultimately individuals must choose to do that. Taking will never achieve the ideals of liberty and it will never create equality.