ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith recently promoted the idea of “equality of opportunity” over the more egalitarian “Equality of Outcome” that left-leaning theorists extoll.
Smith made his somewhat surprising position on the subject known during an interview on the PBD Podcast hosted by Patrick Bet-David, in which he said that “people who produce more ultimately end up more successful than those who don’t.”
“One of the things that I have a problem with when I look at things that are transpiring in this country, you can’t in the same breath talk about capitalism, talk about how it’s equal opportunity that we want, but everybody doesn’t deserve the same, it’s about your level of production,” he said.
“Some people are high-end earners, some people are high-level producers and stuff. And you know, they’re getting treated, they might earn more than somebody that just don’t have that skill set. That’s the world we’re living in,” he added.
Sports television personality Stephen A. Smith is seen on Radio Row ahead of Super Bowl LVIII at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on February 08, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Smith ultimately concluded that equal opportunity matters more than the outcome.
“We just have too many people in this world, especially on Capitol Hill as well, that want to give this impression or want to literally go about the business of changing that and making things equal. The only thing that should be equal is opportunities. But what you receive from your level of production is on you,” he said.
Smith even went on to call people who promote equality of outcome liars, charging that many people “want to act as if ‘You know what? We’re after a different culture. We want everything the same for everybody.’”
“You’re lying. You are lying,” Smith said.
ESPN Analyst Stephen A. Smith speaks before Game 7 of the 2022 NBA Playoffs Eastern Conference Finals on May 29, 2022, at FTX Arena in Miami, Florida. (Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
Smith harkened back to his upbringing in Hollis, Queens, New York City.
” My mother was on welfare for a little while. And it killed her, killed her,” he said.
“Wow,” Bet-David replied.
“She was sick to her stomach that we had to get government cheese and bread and all of this stuff, and she got the hell off of it as soon as she possibly could,” Smith continued. “And I know that when she sent me out there to work, she didn’t send me out there to be like just anybody. She sent me out there to be the best that I can be. Why? So I can earn more for myself than the average typical person, and most people in a capitalistic society believe in that.”
“When you have folks walking around, like everybody is supposed to be the same — that’s nonsense. You’re lying to the American public. You’re lying to yourself. It’s not true. And in the end, people who produce more ultimately end up more successful than those who don’t,” he concluded. “Jimmy Johnson, the former coach of the Dallas Cowboys, said it best, ‘I will be very consistent in my inconsistencies. Those who produce will be treated better than those who don’t.’ And I appreciated his candor. Whether you like it or don’t, that’s the reality.”
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