Equity v. Equality

Have we gone too far in our politically correct concept of treating all people as "equal" in the workplace? Are we rewarding those whose performance isn't as good as those who perform well? Why do we disparage merit raises? Why do we act shocked when a company like G.E. or Cypress Semiconductor creates metrics to reward those who do better and actually fire those who are on the bottom of the evaluation pile?

If you owned your own business, and there weren't compliance laws to worry about, or as here in California, the Labor Relations Board, wouldn't you differentiate between those that really supported your business and those that merely went through the motions trying to get a paycheck? I think so.