Equality, The Spirit of—See [Respect, No, of Persons].
EQUALIZATION
The practise of some physicians is practically the philosophy of Christian socialism: “From every man according to his ability, to every man according to his need.”
“A Philadelphia judge,” says American Medicine, “has given expression to the opinion that ‘the life of a rich man is worth more than the life of a poor man, and the physician has a right to charge the millionaire more for his services than he does the laborer.’ He went on further to say that ‘the physician is unlike the merchant, who has goods of different quality to sell at various prices. He must give his best service in every case. Human life has a pecuniary value of variable quality, greater in the millionaire than in the laborer. Thus, the practitioner of common sense has a maximum and a minimum charge, and makes out his bills to suit the pecuniary circumstances of his patients.’” The writer thinks that “there will be no dissent on the part of right-thinking people” from this view. Carried to its logical conclusion, it would appear to justify a sliding-scale of prices for all the necessities of life, carefully adjusted to the varying incomes of the users. (Text.)
(935)
The conclusion reached in this extract leaves out of account the presence in the cosmos of a living God:
The quantity of energy existing in the universe remains constant, but transforms itself little by little into heat uniformly distributed at a temperature everywhere identical. In the end, therefore, there will be neither chemical phenomena nor manifestation of life; the world will still exist, but without motion; and, so to speak, dead.—Lucien Poincaré, “The New Physics and its Evolution.”
(936)
Equilibrium in Nature—See [Complexity in Organs].