Equality is deeply connected to “social justice,” “what is fair,” and “the common good.” Equality is something that many people around the world have difficulty thinking of in egalitarian terms that directly affects how they view what is fair for everyone. The three values of social sustainability, (quality of life, growth and equality) provide a universal and level standard of evaluation and comparison for what improves the quality of life of others, and our self.
“Social justice” (*Wikipedia) is the ability people have to realize their potential in the society where they live. When people do not have an equal ability to develop their potential (grow) within themselves then they do not have the social capability to improve their quality of life. I think that goes to the heart of the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Social justice can now be measured using those three values of social sustainability. “Social Justice” has been one of those fuzzy philosophical identifiers used to compare socio-economic classes. Now it can be defined in universal terms, and applicable to families and communities of people.
Welfare is a form of social justice, a government program that is universally used in one form or another, yet often does little to improve the quality of life of recipient families. Welfare programs often perpetuate the very causes their ASSUMPTIONS were meant to remove. “Quality of life” now provides a means to measure the effectiveness of welfare programs; and those measures can be used effectively to decrease welfare payments and eventually remove recipients from welfare roles as their quality of life improves.
“What is fair” is something even very young children measure very quickly. Try giving one cookie to a child and then give half a cookies to another child! Protests, social tantrums and sit-down-and-cry get expressed very early. “Fair” and social justice look very similar, and are in some ways. To be treated UNfairly has been the basis for many racial, ethnic and gender complaints. Unfair treatment is easy to see, particularly if you have been the butt of some unfair practice. It goes to the heart – that “feeling place” – within each of us that tells us when bias and prejudice exist.
“The common good” has been very hard to define, until now. What is fair, what is socially just and what is the common good now can be defined very clearly using the three core values. To use those values we must ask, “Does our opinion, actions or intention have a positive, neutral or negative effect on the sustainability of others?”