This study will provide a chapter-by-chapter summary of William Ryan's Equality. The book challenges the ideas of "equality" and "Fair Play" as defined by American society, and offers the alternative idea of "Fair Shares" as a more truly humane and just approach to society and the distribution of wealth.
Chapter 1---"The Equality Dilemma: Fair Play or Fair Shares?"---establishes the context for the book, namely, the differences between various definitions of equality and the implications of such definitions for the structure of social, economic and political relationships. Specifically, the "Fair Play" position (which Ryan condemns) is contrasted with the "Fair Shares" position (which Ryan champions). The Fair Play position is the standard American position "stresses that each person should be equally free from all but the most minimal necessary interference with his right to 'pursue happiness'" (8). The Fair Shares position focuses on "equality of rights and of access, particularly the implicit rights to a reasonable share of society's resources, sufficient to sustain life at a decent standard of humanity and to preserve liberty and freedom from compulsion" (9).
Ryan argues that the system of Fair Play and equal opportunity are not fair or equal at all because it is a system where the rich and powerful become more rich and powerful, and the weak and powerless become weaker and more powerless. Ryan says that the ideas on which the American system is based are simply justifications for the status quo which benefits the rich and punishes the weak.
Chapter 2---"Knowing What's Good For You: Belief and Equality"---looks in greater depth at the beliefs which underlie inequality in the United States. Ryan says that the powerful in any society are the ones who establish beliefs in a society. These beliefs in the United States are that the rich and powerful deserve to be rich and powerful because they are genetically (internally) sp...