This is probably the worst of these kind of illustrations that I have seen. Notably the final panel is not the removal of systemic barriers but rather a use of resources to balance out disadvantage so that "equal" remedies are now a solution. There are problems in every panel though.
It's kinda hard to illustrate them taking turns picking the fruit and equitably sharing what they pick each time. What happens if a third person shows up. Or if one of these people is selling the apples for export to a prosperous country and the other is feeding the destitute in their village.
But you don't need to know the co-ordinates of perfection to know which direction is better.
I agree. An apple tree is super uncomplicated. How to do that with actual abilities people have? Be out randomly or from training.
Image a tiny woman or man that want to work as a fire fighter. Now what? There is no way to make them stronger and bigger, which you need to be to handle the equipment, rescue people etc.
Someone has a disability and can't walk? We can easily add ramps to buildings and help them up.
And what to do if everybody wants not apples but meat, produced in other countries and nobody wanting to process it in the own country? This is literally happening in Germany currently, at least there is something to stop that insanity.
Through technology we can enable them. Exoskeletons, drones, robotics, etc. We may not be able to level the playing field immediately but there are always things that can be done such as working dispatch.
This is not what equity means. I like what you want it to mean, but make up a word instead of taking one with a different meaning in the same category.
The thing that gets people up in arms is that you can't see the shape of tree nearly as easily* as you can see the height of the ladders, so the "equality" solution may just look like giving an advantage to your favorite group.
*Yes, we have ways to see the shape of the tree, but that's through studies and trusting experts, whereas you can see the height of the ladders plainly.
Inequality is a complicated mess of systems that have been operating in a certain way for so long, that it all feels normal. And for those in a position of privilege, it feels like it's operating in the best way it could. They literally can't see past it without a ton of effort, research, and analysis.
What they can see is that someone gets a taller ladder and they think that's unfair without being able to see that the taller ladder still doesn't give that person equal access to resources and they started in a hole in the first place.