"I'm for equal opportunity, not equal outcome." It sounds like an endorsement of an attractively meritocratic and liberated social structure that recognizes and rewards individual investment. The ominous "equal outcomes" has a fatalistic, and even authoritarian, ring to it. When contrasted with an equal opportunity society, the equal outcome world seems like a dystopia governed by powerful social engineers who have rendered things like effort, merit, skill, and talent totally obsolete. But these connotations mislead. While the general sentiment behind the slogan is usually an individualistic one I can get behind, the purported distinction between equal opportunity and outcome quickly collapses under scrutiny.
Start (capitalist) society over and equalize the variables that obstruct equality of opportunity at time zero. Everyone begins equally wealthy, connected, attractive, smart, skilled, and so on. In this equal opportunity utopia, there is no racism, sexism, or any other -ism that systematically devalues some people's work due to characteristics beyond their control. The starting conditions of this hypothetical world are maximally meritocratic. Hit start. Time starts to tick.
Meritocracy?
While this society would be more just than any actual one for a while, the compounding effects of luck would quickly corrupt the once equal opportunity structure. Even if everyone invested equal effort the system breaks down. A few chance events here and there which may seem inconsequential at first create powerful ripple effects over time. Nothing about the meritocratic starting conditions protects our subjects from car accidents or natural disasters. These victims of chance lose their ability to do the jobs for which they have trained and are forced to start over in a new sector. As a result, they accumulate less wealth over the course of their lives. Luck does not just influence the opportunity structure for members of Generation #1, it cruelly (or generously) modulates the opportunities afforded to subsequent generations. The injured car crash victim's inhibited wealth accumulation affects the opportunity structure into which his children are born.
The primary flaw with the opportunity-outcome distinction is that it is myopic. It does not expand the timescale to include multiple generations. How can everyone in generation #2 enter a world with equal opportunity if luck creates unfair outcomes for generation #1? And keep in mind, this is the best case scenario. In the actual world, luck is far from the only destabilizing element. In our human reality, the most meritocratic possibilities can't even approximate the hypothetical system described above. Many factors completely beyond people's control shape their access to, for instance, education. Genetic characteristics predict intelligence (and consequently variables like academic performance) to a wildly disturbing degree.
Unequal Outcomes @ G1 > Unequal Opportunities @ G2
A system with anything close to equal opportunity across multiple generations requires the equalization of certain outcomes at particular points in time. At some point, the pieces of the game require resetting if the players are to start on an equal footing. Far from polar opposites, equality of opportunity and equality of outcome mutually constitute each another. Equal outcomes today create the possibility for equal opportunities tomorrow.