Equality and Freedom
A man named Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn made a quote that can get you thinking about the world, our civilization and what really is true.
The Quote "Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free."
He was implying that we pick one because the two cannot coexist based on the very natural differences between us. Freedom and equality can be there but won't be perfectly there.
People have several differing traits and some traits are more beneficial in a certain market than others. If I was born to become tall, strong, athletic and aggressive by nature, my training and performance if I enter into certain sports will be better by default than someone who didn't have these traits. It wouldn't be because the person didn't train harder, it would be because based on genetics, the person couldn't have trained harder without breaking a bone.
And the thing is society rewards the beneficial traits. Such a person can just use their trait to a greater and greater extent than his or her competitors, which creates some form of social mobility, an unfair advantage created by nature.
That is not to rule out the value and magic of practice and hard work. Don't make this an excuse to lose in life.
If you attempt to lessen gaps in the natural differences we have as human beings, you are imposing a quota. The decision of a governor to impose a law to not allow people to earn beyond a line, work beyond a limit or chase a goal to their individual human differences is only going to result in having a society that is entirely controlled and never free. This is a socioeconomic political analysis. You will lose your power of choice, destiny, and results if you're living in a region like that.
So you can have an equal society or a free society, not both. When you look into the history books of some nations, it's like a vault of attempted equality which only failed.
Choices and costs go hand in hand. Rather than making a choice they create an illusion of equality so everyone will feel ok but the facts on the ground is unless people are capped and bound to a limit there will never be equality. Who wants to live in a world where you're told you can't go beyond this level of performance No one, and so we should accept that equality in the sense of output will never be.
What can be is our endeavor to respect ourselves equally. But let's be honest, great achievers naturally attract attention and respect more than the people that have not achieved it or are yet to.
I would also like to put across that value is subjective, especially in a situation like this but I know trying to defend both absolutely means you're defending none.
Original source of the image from Pixabay but edited by me