Absorption Approach to the Balance of Payments
The absorption approach to the balance of payments states that a country’s balance of trade will only improve if the country’s output of goods and services increases by more than its absorption, where the term ‘absorption’ means expenditure by domestic re
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equality
The very use of the term 'equality' is often clouded by imprecise and inconsistent meanings. For example, 'equality' is used to mean equality before the law (equality of treatment by authorities), equality of opportunity (equality of chances in the economic system), and equality of result (equal distribution of goods), among other things. These different meanings often conflict, and are almost never wholly consistent. See Hayek (1960, p. 85; 1976, pp. 62-4) for a discussion of equality before the law and equality of result, and Rawls (1971) for a discussion of equality of opportunity within a theory of distributive justice. Elsewhere I have discussed the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of result in education (Coleman, 1975). See also Pole (1978) for a detailed examination of the changing conceptions of equality in American history. Some order can be brought into the confusion among the different uses of the term 'equality' by first conceiving of a system that constitutes an abstraction from reality. The system consists of: (a) a set of positions which have two properties: (i) when occupied by persons, they generate activities which produce valued goods and services; (ii) the persons in them are rewarded for these activities, both materially and symbolically; (b) a set of adult persons who are occupants of positions; (c) children of these adults; (d) a set of normative or legal constraints on certain actions. What is ordinarily meant by equality under the law has to do with (b), (c), and (d): that the normative or legal constraints on actions depend only on the nature of the action, and not on the identity of the actor. That is, the law treats persons in similar positions similarly, and does not discriminate among them according to characteristics irrelevant to the action. What is ordinarily meant by equality of opportunity has to do with (a), (b), and (c): that the processes through which persons come to occupy positions give an equal chance to all. More particularly, this ordinarily means that a child's opportunities to occupy one of the positions (a) do not depend on which particular adults from set (b) are that child's parents. What is ordinarily meant by equality of result has to do with (a.ii): that the rewards given to the position occupied by each person are the same, independent of the activity.
These three conceptions, equality under the law, equality of opportunity, and equality of result can also be seen as involving different relations of the State to the inequalities that exist or spontaneously arise in ongoing social activities. Equality before the law implies that the laws of the State do not recognize distinctions among persons that are irrelevant to the activities of the positions they occupy, but otherwise make no attempt to eliminate inequalities that arise. Equality of opportunity implies that the State intervenes to insure that inequalities in one generation do not cross generations, that children have opportunities unaffected by inequalities a
