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If we were truly free, then what "equality" would mean is equality of opportunity, not equality of material wealth.

People would be free to work in whatever field they liked and put in as much effort as they liked. Thus, those with an ambition to become wealthy would do so, those with other priorities would be less wealthy. There is nothing wrong with this, it is as it should be.

However, each person would be allowed this opportunity in a free world and this is what doesn't happy. People have advantages because of their gender, age, lifestyle, sexuality, health status etc. Being born a certain way gives unfair advantage. The barriers to equality of opportunity may also depend on other issues such as social class. In some professions, belonging to the right social strata is all-important abd ability less so.

Similarly, someone from a less-developed society cannot simply move to where the opportunities are and so whole portions of the world are denied the opportunity to make the most of their future.

So, equality in a free world could perhaps best be defined as "fairness".

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