Economists are often heard to speak of 'trade offs' between equality and other concerns (usually efficiency). I have in the past been inclined (intolerantly) to regard this as crassness, but I am no longer certain that it is in principle mistaken.
(T. M. Scanlon, "Rights, Goals, and Fairness," Erkenntnis 11 [May 1977]: 81-95, at 87)
Note from KBJ: Equality is one good among many. No good is absolute, in the sense of being untradeable for other goods. That Scanlon once thought equality to be an absolute good shows the grip of egalitarian thinking on otherwise intelligent people. Thank goodness Scanlon came to his senses.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 