Martin Koch

English 101

03/07/05

Revised

Equality of Freedom

        Wealth and poverty are really common in the world today, but what is the connection between them? Does justice have anything to do with poverty and wealth? What is justice? According to the Declaration of Independence “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” (Stanton 172). Therefore, all men have the right to justice, and the government is there to deliver justice over the governed.

Even though Thomas Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal,” the Friedman’s explain that Jefferson did not regard all persons to be equal in physical characteristics, emotional reactions, mechanical and intellectual abilities because even Jefferson was a remarkable person who had accomplished things that the every day men did not. There is a next phrase of the Declaration of Independence that suggests life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are rights given by the Creator of men and these rights are unalienable (266). “Consequently, the Friedman’s say that “Liberty is part of the definition of Equality, not in conflict with it” (266). In order to have justice, every man has to be treated equal or with equal rules. Thus liberty if not in conflict with equality, then liberty is in accordance with justice.

For instance, it is almost impossible that all men would have equality of opportunity because opportunities can not be made identical, and opportunities are linked to ones abilities. Neither birth, nationality, color, religion, sex, nor any other irrelevant characteristic should determine the opportunities that are open to them, but one’s abilities do (268). This does not mean that because every man has different abilities justice is different to them. This means that even though the abilities of every man might be different, if they are disqualified simply by their ethnic background, color, or religion, that is an interference with their right to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit to Happiness.” No one’s freedom should be sacrificed for the advantage of others.

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Furthermore -- are wealth and poverty woven together with justice? Even though in the nature of the world “life is not fair” and some people have more talent, luck, and success than others, all are equal before God and equal before the law. As humans we are encouraged to acquire more wealth than some other people do. This is why there is so much injustice in the world. People take other people as “slaves” to have more possessions, and by doing so, they go out of their “liberty zone” and invade someone else’s liberty, taking away Justice.

Hence, Justice ...

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