# Are all people equal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 7, 2009, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-people-equal/502169 "2009-07-07T05:14:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-people-equal/502169/21 "2009-07-08T21:18:02Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > “All people are created equal” refers to equality of rights, not equality of abilities. The doomed limbless retarded kid has the same constitutional rights as a nobel prize winning billionaire physicist who’s also a starting point guard in the NBA. In a fair and just world, Nobel Prize-winning physicists would have the same shot at being billionaires that inbred heirs and Ponzi schemers have. Sadly, few of them crack the $100 K/yr mark. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-people-equal/502169/22 "2009-07-09T13:18:31Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > In a fair and just world, Nobel Prize-winning physicists would have the same shot at being billionaires that inbred heirs and Ponzi schemers have. Sadly, few of them crack the $100 K/yr mark. Actually they do. People aren’t born Nobel Prize winning physicists, Ponzi schemers and whatnot. If you are intelligent and educated enough to win the Nobel Prize, you are smart enough that you could probably have gone into investment banking, medicine, law, technology or any other field that typically pays well. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo\_Pin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mojo\_Pin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo_Pin)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-people-equal/502169/23 "2009-07-09T13:50:00Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Absolutely not. The correct understanding of human equality was stated by G. K. Chesterton. > > In terms of soul, all human beings are equal, that is to say God views us all as equal. In terms of anything else, we are certainly not equal. There is no physical characteristic or mental ability in existance that all human beings have in equal amount, or even in close to equal amount. Hence any philosophy of life that insists on judging human beings that way will eventually lead to inequality, first in the philosophical sense, then in the legal. You can find books in your local bookstore explaining why certain people should be denied voting rights or other rights. Let’s stay away from presupposing the existence or nature of a soul here. Mr. Chesterton said so isn’t quite enough. > [@msmith537](#): > > Actually they do. People aren’t born Nobel Prize winning physicists, Ponzi schemers and whatnot. If you are intelligent and educated enough to win the Nobel Prize, you are smart enough that you could probably have gone into investment banking, medicine, law, technology or any other field that typically pays well. Well as long as we’re speculating here, perhaps their inborn drive for discovery and love of physics would keep them from holding a job like investment banking. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-people-equal/502169/24 "2009-07-09T14:23:05Z")
> [@Mojo\_Pin](#): > > Well as long as we’re speculating here, perhaps their inborn drive for discovery and love of physics would keep them from holding a job like investment banking. And that’s fine. The point is that their successes and failures are the results of the decisions they made, based on their interests and abilities. \*\*Krokodil \*\* implied that being a billionaire (which, incidently there are only 793 in the entire world) is the ultimate end goal. Everyone isn’t striving to be a billionare. Fact of the matter is that we all don’t have the same chances to become a Nobel Prize winner, NBA basketball player, billionaire, and so on because we have different abilities and aptitudes. Not everyone gets to play on the starting team or win a scholarship to Harvard Medical School. Not everyone wants to. What “equality” means is that everyone has the opportunity to compete if they want to. And the same standards should apply regardless of who they are or where they come from. ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-people-equal/502169/25 "2009-07-09T14:50:32Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > In a fair and just world, Nobel Prize-winning physicists would have the same shot at being billionaires that inbred heirs and Ponzi schemers have. Sadly, few of them crack the $100 K/yr mark. Well they do get that one million dollar booty upon winning their prize. And then they can charge a lot more for their services [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-people-equal/502169.md?page=1)