Each Outcome Is Another Opportunity

Abstract

Abstract This chapter considers those forms of equal opportunity that go beyond mere non-discrimination, and argues that each of them face a choice. They can employ what Clare Chambers calls a ‘Moment of Equal Opportunity’, dividing a person’s life around a key Moment at which opportunities are equalised and after which they are not. The problem with this option is that the injustice of unequal opportunities persists throughout life, meaning that equality of opportunity becomes an arbitrarily temporary state. But if a Moment of Equality of Opportunity is not used, and equality of opportunity is ensured throughout life, serious inefficiencies and bad decisions ensue. To put it simply, the chapter argues that a theory of equality of opportunity is unjustified if it uses a Moment of Equal Opportunity, and unworkable if it does not.