1.5.9.9 Calculating Equality

Version 1.0 October 2022                             (Previous Version)

We use Equality as a guiding principle not in all respects but only in some dimensions, as discussed.  In a very rough way, we have to measure along all these dimensions to ascertain the best outcome.

In practice we must balance what we know for more or less certain against what is less reliably known.

As the other people affected by a decision become more remote in distance and time, in practice we discount their interests more: we may think they are less important, but also, they may be less impacted.  This is a reality of life and it is not hypocritical if we acknowledge it.  The critical issue is that those remote in distance and time are not discounted completely.  If we care even just a little bit about the millions of strangers on the other side of the country or the other side of the world, then given their numbers, that fact can have a significant impact on our choice criteria.

How much benefit or disadvantage a person experiences as a result of one of our choices is almost impossible to ascertain in a standardized way, especially if we must consider each of the relevant dimensions.  If we consider all of the possibly affected people, the problem seems to be immense.

So in practice we learn and develop rules of thumb for standard situations.

Large organizations similarly will develop rules of thumb, perhaps expressed as policy statements, and perhaps based on industry standard practices.  When there is a more unique issue, larger organizations will have more resources, and more expert resources, to address the issue as a one-off or a precedent.

We consider these rules of thumb in more detail later, for individuals in Part 6 on Personal Practice, and for larger organizations and society as a whole in Part 7 on Political Action.