Opportunity matters more than equality?

http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_economic_inequality.html

This article raises an issue I've been struggling with in my job since day one. I like to believe that I'm a "fair" person, and I've spent a decent amount of time trying to insure that resources are equitably distributed across the academic areas that report to me.

This article, however, would indicate that I'm worrying too much about the wrong thing. People are, perhaps, happier when they're better off than their peers (when they get more resources than the next person), but concerns about inequality are generally overrated. What matters much more to most people is "opportunity."

One conclusion I could draw from this article is that the system by which resource decisions are made needs to be as objective and "fair" as possible, but the results do not. As long as people have opportunities to better their resource position, whether they actually do so is less of a concern.