People often describe the right wing as those concerned more with freedom/liberty and the left wing as those whose priority is equality/justice. Are the concepts of freedom and equality mutually exclusive? Where does freedom end and when the idea of justice becomes more important?

Freedom/liberty Equality/justice see voting resultssaving...
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Apr 30, 2016

Arent they pretty much the same thing?

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User voted Freedom/liberty.
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Aug 8, 2016

Freedom and liberty without equality is what America is going through right now. Justice and equality without freedom is the basic definition of socialism.

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User voted Equality/justice.
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Aug 22, 2016

You can't make a maxim as to in which situation you pick each. It's like asking "What do you choose if you can only have one: food/shelter or water/sleep?" Have too little of either of those options and you die.

Have too little of freedom and liberty and you can't have justice or equality. The only way to have so little freedom is if many people are having their options constrained, and until robots exist, that means other people will be oppressing them, reducing equality (at least in terms of power). And too much restriction of freedom is by its necessity unjust.

Have too little equality and justice and you can't have freedom or liberty. If you can't stop people from enslaving or raping or killing or exploiting each other, liberty doesn't exist and freedom means nothing. And if there's too much inequality, you won't get any freedom either, because those with more power will deny others' freedoms.

Justice is a prerequisite for freedom. You need justice first. If I can act unjustly to you, I can violate your rights. Your right to swing your arm ends at my face.

After you have justice, you can have freedom. People need to have a reasonable ability to choose for themselves and have their own options in order to have equity. If we're not all able to act like adults and make our own choices, we're not being treated equitably.

Freedom then must produce equality and liberty, which are social results created by having a proper balance of freedom and justice.

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