Equality of Outcome is Literally Impossible

The universe is finite. If I have the widget, then you can’t have the same widget, too. A thing can only be in one place at a time.

Even if we make two widgets, our outcomes will not be the same. I’ll have different expectations of widgets and different exposure to widget users, and thus our experiences will not be the same. Maybe in my family, no one has ever successfully used a widget, so when I get one, I don’t think it’s worth very much. But maybe in your family, widget use has been their road to financial independence, so when you get it, you treasure it.

This exact same scenario applies to every tangible thing, service, process, or event in the universe. It is literally impossible to have an identical outcome of anything finite.

What you CAN have is equality of the right to something. Rights are intangible. They are unlimited, never used up, they never run dry.

As Thomas Jefferson famously explained it:

“He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his [candle] at mine, receives light without darkening me.”

We can all have the right to be treated equally under the law. But the actual administration of the law is finite — there is but the one court trying the one case with the one…