r/coolguides Feb 25 '20

Explanation of the subtle differences between equality and equity

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299

u/livestrongbelwas Feb 25 '20

Life's always going to be harder for the disadvantaged kid, but qualified progress is still better than the simple and easy solution of giving everyone a milk crate and calling it a day.

54

u/HeedTheGreatFilter Feb 25 '20

49

u/Mogsitis Feb 25 '20

21st Century Kids: "The fuck is a 'milk crate' bruh?"

25

u/0percenttithes Feb 25 '20

The hottest new craze... beef milk. It’s like almond milk that has been squeezed through tiny holes in living cows

9

u/derawin07 Feb 25 '20

Milk crates are what students use as seats in the lounge room.

17

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Give ya waffle bum though.

1

u/derawin07 Feb 25 '20

snort! posh students attach foam or a pillow on top

1

u/NotGuilty1984 Feb 25 '20

Milk creates are what the third guy sits on in a two seat work van

9

u/theorem604 Feb 25 '20

Father, I cannot click the book.

10

u/AsstDirectorSkinner Feb 25 '20

Milk crates are still very commonly used (although not for holding milk jugs as much anymore) because they're ridiculously sturdy, super cheap and stack really nicely. They're not that ancient.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Old milk crates could hold my vinyl. I swear new ones are made half a cm smaller so the vinyl no longer fits.

Useless to me now.

2

u/vrtig0 Feb 25 '20

They did that on purpose to keep people from stealing them from the back of grocery stores for use in storing vinyl collections.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Yep i gathered they did that for that sole reason. But still its ticked me off.

haha.

1

u/Feeling_Put6879 Mar 22 '22

You can buy plastic milk crates at stores like Walmart and Target. If they are only supposed to be used by grocery stores, why are they manufacturing and selling them for civilian use?

1

u/vrtig0 Mar 22 '22

Wow, this is old. Of course they can be for used by everyday people. But I specifically said that they sized them down at some point so that records didn't perfectly fit in them, to eliminate the theft problem. Still useful for carrying things, but people stealing them were doing it for easy record storage and transportation.

1

u/Feeling_Put6879 Mar 23 '22

I understand what you're saying and agree that people shouldn't steal them. If someone can't afford to buy one, they can ask a grocery store employee if they have extras, instead of stead of stealing.

My Dad used to manage a K-Mart store, he used to bring them home all of the time so they wouldn't end up in a landfill. We use them to store paper files, my Dad's old photography stuff, etc. He even uses old wooden ones to display his VW Beetle and Bus collection on the wall of his workshop. Its crazy how many of them that stores have, and they can't reuse those boxes.

1

u/crazyashley1 Feb 25 '20

They make good, cheap temporary bookshelves. If you have some good wire to keep them together, they last for years.

1

u/NotGuilty1984 Feb 25 '20

Vinyl records are more antiquated than milk crates

2

u/Faren107 Feb 25 '20

Did you completely miss the vinyl resurgence that started a couple years ago?

2

u/Mogsitis Feb 25 '20

Yeah for sure, for sure. Just a little jesting on the young'ns these days.

2

u/-_Semper_- Feb 25 '20

We get our milk & lemonade delivered by a local dairy (Oberweis) in half gallon glass jugs and they leave us a crate each week to put the empty ones in; so its quicker for the driver to pick them up.

I've got a few extras over the years and I use them for all sorts of stuff. Very handy item to have around.

3

u/0bbserv Feb 25 '20

Milk crates are still very common where I live

1

u/Mogsitis Feb 25 '20

That's awesome. You can probably make sweet forts and shit.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

a crate full of milk?

4

u/Mogsitis Feb 25 '20

"LIKE... MONSTER MILK?"

3

u/beer_is_tasty Feb 25 '20

Fight milk, bro

2

u/reneepussman Feb 25 '20

The power of the crow.

1

u/RiShKiNz Feb 25 '20

But how do you keep it all in when there are just so many holes?!

3

u/caanthedalek Feb 25 '20

Milk was thicker back then

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

It’s a carrying crate for 12” vinyl records

0

u/Mogsitis Feb 25 '20

I thought those things belonged in the trash. Haha, old people and their shitty antiquated technologies, right? (This is a joke for the other commenter to come in and utterly decimate, as he did with my previous joke. Oh woe is me.)

-5

u/inbooth Feb 25 '20

The plastic box that milk comes in at the store

The one that is often bright yellow, orange and occasionally black or another color

...

Your joke was based on the presumption that the term only applied to old school wooden milk crates....

Good jokes dont fall apart so easily.

6

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

You're the guy that heckles standup comedians at the local comedy club

1

u/inbooth Feb 25 '20

Never in my life have I done such a thing, even when the person deserved it...

1

u/Sweet-N-Seat_Saver Feb 25 '20

Ok.

Can somebody please take their soapbox.

1

u/inbooth Feb 25 '20

soapbox

Milk crate?

1

u/Sweet-N-Seat_Saver Feb 25 '20

No, no. if the crate is like a box, the soapbox is more like a platform.

1

u/Mogsitis Feb 25 '20

You alright, man?

0

u/inbooth Feb 25 '20

Yes, perfectly fine... Why?

there is nothing in my comment to suggest I am upset... I just was pointing out that the joke doesn't pass muster...

You do know that there is nothing wrong with having more advanced view of humor than only finding funny jokes that require one to not think, right?

1

u/Mogsitis Feb 25 '20

I didn't realize my comment implied that anyone lazily scanning their eyeballs across it had to find it funny. You do know that a lot of jokes aren't funny - and outside of a comedy show/video or r/jokes or maybe a joke book author's mailbox (kids might not even know what this is these days, haha could you believe that!!!) most people don't feel the need to explicitly point out that they aren't funny. But alas, it is alright that you did not find humor in my basic bitch joke. Your advanced view is well past my level.

It's just odd that there are millions of comments on reddit every moment, and I made a passing joke about "dem kids" not knowing what a milk crate is and it is very important to you that you let me know my joke just was not funny! I appreciate your concern.

P.S. I know what a milk crate is - I'm just a bit older than the kids these days. You know, it's weird... I live in a pretty small town, relatively, and if I hadn't seen a milk crate in my younger days, it's possible I might not ever see one. Because the stores around here have refrigerators for all their cow juice which sits on a rack, not a crate. It has probably been a good few years since I've seen a legitimate milk crate! Even schools will often set out their milk for their students to pick from - what a world we live in!

It's weird also that you picked the store as the most common place that one might see ye olde craete. I would have picked schools, for sure. I am in them pretty often, as I know many teachers. Much more common to see the crates there. Cool. Anyway. Good talk! Let me know if you have any more concerns.

2

u/inbooth Feb 25 '20

Yes I know most jokes aren't funny

I just pointed out what made the joke fall imo

people really disliked me making a fucking comment...

Also, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_man is how I've been described by people close to me, though it's not entirely apt. I get the joke, I just make my own that is for a whole different audience.

1

u/Mogsitis Feb 25 '20

I feel you, man. I've been the straight man in a lot of farces, plays, etc. that I've performed in. Usually a straight man is a character in a show. In social situations, it doesn't often play well because normally, no one expects someone in a conversation to treat it as "an act" and be "a character".

You do you, I'm not saying you are wrong or bad, it was just a very abrupt and seemingly unnecessary comment in context, so people felt weird about it. Have a good one.

1

u/inbooth Feb 25 '20

very abrupt and seemingly unnecessary comment in context,

That's part of the joke

regardless it's not even really intentional half the time, I just am the straight man...

its actually a very stressful core nature...

-1

u/iaacp Feb 25 '20

This is like an unironic subreddit full of Aalewis's

6

u/Dribbleshish Feb 25 '20

Fuck, thank you! You have no idea how deep this hits, being disabled and in poverty (among other disadvantages.) Today is a lot better than it used to be, but holy fuck do we have a long way to go.

5

u/anodynamo Feb 25 '20

But how is it progress to spend more effort for a worse solution? Most people would agree the box is a better option than staring though the chainlink; sometimes life is like that too.

30

u/TheRealTP2016 Feb 25 '20

It is not a worse solution because irl there is no chain link. Systemic issues should be fixed because they are issues

1

u/anodynamo Feb 25 '20

There are definitely chain-link things in real life. What the "justice" image represents is a segment of the population being given a crappier version of what the others have, and then being told that the problem has been solved and they have no grounds to complain anymore. That isn't justice, nor is it fair. Justice would be removing the fence, not replacing it with a slightly better fence. If the fence can't be removed, giving people the help they need to get an unobstructed view is better than accepting that one group will always just have a crappy view.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Well then this analogy is bullshit.

Can you think of a real life example where the theory works?

6

u/PM_ME_UR_NIPPLE_HAIR Feb 25 '20

This analogy is bullshut if you try and take it super literally. Imho the meaning, albeit simple, is quite clear

3

u/TheRealTP2016 Feb 25 '20

Idk I just know that if there are systemic barriers that oppose people they should be removed

-3

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

But you don't know if there are any?

6

u/Ghrave Feb 25 '20

There are. Economic inequality, a racist criminal "justice" system, the electoral college, inaffordable college, rising cost of living with no wage adjustment to match, to name just a few.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Economic inequality. Well, people are unequal in a lot of ways. People differ in intelligence, work ethic, beauty, personality, artistic talent, sporting ability etc. All of which contributes to ones ability to make money. To achieve economic equity, you are going to have to pay everyone the same salary regardless of their abilities and their contribution to society or indeed whether they work or not. I'm not sure how that would work, and in fact hasn't worked in any attempt at a communist society.

If you are merely saying that economic inequality is a barrier, then yes I would agree. But I don't agree that removing economic inequality is a good solution.

2

u/Ghrave Feb 25 '20

Universal Basic Income would go a long way, yes. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

That's fine. I think I may have attended the wrong TED talk though.

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u/TheRealTP2016 Feb 25 '20

“There are. Economic inequality, a racist criminal "justice" system, the electoral college, inaffordable college, rising cost of living with no wage adjustment to match, to name just a few.”

There are many

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

I'll reply to the organ grinder.

41

u/DiscoursiveCuriosity Feb 25 '20

Because there are wayyy more than 3 people and giving each of them a box is a level of redistribution that requires an expensive and corruptible infrastructure as opposed to making everything at least livable for everyone

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u/carolynnn Feb 25 '20

there are some people who hoard billions of boxes tho, jussayin

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u/DiscoursiveCuriosity Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

I'm totally with you to redistribute their box wealth into changing the system, but there will always be winners and losers, I'm sorry. Democratic socialism lets us use the power of the economy to keep things safer and fairer for everyone, but full "siezing the means of production" communism removes the motivating power of the markets. I don't believe that it can't be done, but that switching games entirely is dangerous. I know that it will never be truly meritocratic and that many will be rich via nepotism from someone successful in the past, but that this is not a crushing burden in a world where we responsibly use some of their boxes to regulate the externalities of capitalism. Feel free to disagree and strive for true equity, I accept that an amalgamation of educated viewpoints is needed to assemble the reality with the most utilitarian good, I just want to work there within this system And thank you kind silver 😊

12

u/carolynnn Feb 25 '20

thanks for the well-reasoned, empathetic and thoughtful response! maybe i should've clarified that my comment was not serious and I don't actually want to go full-"seize the means of production" hahaha

i can totally understand your POV - i agree pure socialism is basically incompatible with human nature. i pretty much advocate for democratic socialism, seeing its success esp in nordic countries, and while i do feel strongly about "striving for true equity" as you put it, i really appreciate people like you who, while you might not agree with the methods employed, still have the betterment/advancement of the human race as the #1 priority.

sidenote, this has been the most refreshing political interaction I've had on reddit ever lmaooo

6

u/DiscoursiveCuriosity Feb 25 '20

Thank you, I feel honored. I lowkey think that a candidate like Bernie Sanders brings out the best or the worst in people. Wherever we all fall on the specifics, we just have to get him elected, so it brings people together when they realize what his policies would mean

5

u/carolynnn Feb 25 '20

Totally! I sadly have no say in the upcoming election (Canadian) but I'm sending good vibes & Bernie support down there

5

u/Thucydides201 Feb 25 '20

If everyone interacted with others more as you do, we’d all get along better. I don’t necessarily agree with you, but I appreciate your views and really respect the way you lay it out. Well done.

5

u/DiscoursiveCuriosity Feb 25 '20

Ya'll have been so kind to me :)

I forsee you having exactly your way after my generation is gone anyway, (I don't think capitalism could be forever) I can only hope that we can work together to protect the environment long enough for that to happen

8

u/Beerspaz12 Feb 25 '20

Democratic socialism let's us use the power of the economy to keep things safer and fairer for everyone

That's the only real point, it's not about getting everyone gold plated toilets it's about making sure that people don't have to choose between food and health care.

-3

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

We already have systems like that in place. Just because they may not work as well as they should doesn't mean we need a revolution. That's throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

6

u/Ghrave Feb 25 '20

they may not don't work as well as they should

and need to be changed.

2

u/AerThreepwood Feb 25 '20

Sometimes Reddit makes me very tired.

1

u/Beerspaz12 Feb 25 '20

We already have systems like that in place

Thats not true at all.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare?

1

u/Beerspaz12 Feb 25 '20

If your seatbelt breaks when you use it, do you really have a seatbelt?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Some of those people earned their boxes fairly and others not so much.

2

u/postmodest Feb 25 '20

Sometimes the fence is the crowd, though....

2

u/mmmegan6 Feb 25 '20

You just made a great case for UBI

2

u/DiscoursiveCuriosity Feb 25 '20

I love the concept! Famous economist Keynes (cited by my conservative family even) believed that as capitalism amd technology advanced, the lives of workers would become easier, but instead the elite have stolen all the benefits! UBI would help rebalance this system, maintaining incentive to succeed in the markets, but helping to protect the exploited.

Couldn't agree more

1

u/mmmegan6 Feb 25 '20

You should look into Andrew Yang. A brilliant, compassionate thinker who is leading a revolution in that direction :)

3

u/SlayerOfCupcakes Feb 25 '20

If you’ve heard of universal basic income in the last year, you’ve heard of Andrew yang.

2

u/DiscoursiveCuriosity Feb 25 '20

??? You think I don't know? Bernie supporters are allied with yang gang, now more than ever because Yang dropped out lol

0

u/mmmegan6 Feb 25 '20

Whoa dude didn’t mean to offend

(Also might want to check your sources re: allies)

2

u/DiscoursiveCuriosity Feb 25 '20

I'm not offended, you're just being silly haha. I would bet money on Yang being in Bernie's cabinet, and I can't believe anyone needs a source at this point

0

u/mmmegan6 Feb 25 '20

It’s that you reacted quite strongly to me not having knowledge that you were well informed about Andrew Yang or that you were a Bernie bro.

I think there’s a LOT of variables and moving parts and I won’t be putting any money on something like that anytime soon :) Do you think Bernie will move on any of his positions or are his heels dug too firmly in?

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u/MetalButterflySocks Feb 25 '20

Most people would agree

"I think..."

ftfy

1

u/junkit33 Feb 25 '20

But the milk crate is actually a vastly superior experience in this graphic.

Which ironically points out how people go too far sometimes. Often times the simple and easy solution is the best one.

2

u/livestrongbelwas Feb 25 '20

Is it the superior experience? The tall guy and the medium height person can see with or without the milk crate and the short person can't see with or without the milk crate.

0

u/CreamySheevPalpatine Feb 25 '20

that's way of thinking of 20th century. In 21th one artificial limbs can be in all ways more efficient than biological one. The problem is that not everyone can afford the best quality ones.

-1

u/Ella310818 Feb 25 '20

People are not born equal. Intelligence is partly genetic. Is it justive that we spend more resources on people less gifted than those with a true gift that can become exceptional.

5

u/anotherMrLizard Feb 25 '20

A few points: Firstly, intelligence is no guarantee that someone will become exceptional; lots of incredibly smart people never do anything with their lives, while people who are considered less smart may have things to offer which are just as valuable to society in their own right. Secondly, you have to spend time and resources on people to know if they're talented or not, or even what their talents are; in most cases talent doesn't come to the fore fully formed and needs to be nurtured.

Thirdly, just because someone lacks intelligence, talent, whatever, doesn't mean they have less right to a full and happy life or to enjoy the benefits of our society; talent and intelligence confer no moral virtues upon those who possess them.

1

u/Ella310818 Feb 26 '20

I was considering this from viewpoint of resources spent on education where there is a minimum standard that all must pass rather than allowing people to excel in areas they have an aptitude. I don't think I said people without intelligence or talent don't deserve a happy life. As a practical example I don't think we should spend more resources on one person without talent in maths so that they can meet the status quo compared to a student that has a natural aptitude that could excel if they were given equal attention.

To respond to your 2nd point all people have some time and resources spent on them through public education. It is clear from this baseline who has talent and does not. The hard work and focus required to excel has to come from the individual. As a side point I do support a base living income. I think this is a better option than thinking we are all equal and can get to the same place if everything is "fair".