I am very interested in Barack Obama's ideas about fairness. I would like to take a moment and talk about the word fairness.
Fairness - The property of being fair
Basically, to be fair, like having the same amount of players on each team when playing a game or sport or to split earnings 50/50 for equal work. But lets take the concept of playing a sport and explorer fairness a bit further.
Let's take a basket ball game scenario. You gonna play a game of B-ball with some friends but realize there are 9 players. To be fair, everyone agrees to make 2 teams of 4. To take fairness one step further, rather than picking players possibly leaving out the one with the least skills, everyone put their names on pieces of paper and drew them from a hat, the one left would be referee till the next game. So I guess you can say fairness played nicely in this scenario. Or did it? You see, whether you believe is God or not, fairness is not fully part of our human nature. Some people are smarter than others, some are faster and others are better B-ball players. So when the 2 teams of 4
were formed, just how fair was it really when one of the teams possibly had the player with the least skills and maybe one of the teams had 2 really good players? The Chicago Bulls won 6 Championships thanks to Michael Jordan. A look back at those seasons would make some believe those other teams never really stood a chance. But the truth is Michael Jordan brought out the best in those who wanted to beat him so bad and when he left, this spirit of competition continued as more and more players got better and better.
Another example would be the New York Yankees winning 26 championships because they basically got the best of the best. Was it fair for the New York Yankees to be able to afford the best players while other teams had to settle for the 1 or 2 players they were able to acquire? In the end each team that played against the Yankees or the Bulls had the same amount of players on the field or court.
It would seem fairness is only applicable when the one who wants it is the one on the losing end. But then one could also say that fairness could be interpreted as you get what you deserve because it's what you earned. Is it fair to award a child with an A if they got all the answers on a test correct? Is it fair to give a B or a C if they have a
few answers incorrect? One would have to accept that some kids are smarter than others and some work harder than others to get the best grades they are capable of getting. Is that fair? Absolutely.
Even when one becomes part of the workforce, one does not get a job to earn the same amount of money for the rest of their lives. Companies usually award employees with raises and promotions based (usually) on performance (though it can't be denied that favoritism, ass-kissing and friendship often play a role in these awards, which is obviously not fair). Competition is the key word here. This country was founded on
the notion that everyone had the right and equal opportunity of reaching the American Dream (although one can not deny, yet again, that there was a time when this did not apply to all races but I like to believe we are almost past this ignorance) by what ever legal means they chose (farming, medical, athlete, acting, singing, etc). Now,
again, nature plays it's role and not everyone will reach this American Dream be it by physical or mental disabilities, laziness, ignorance, or bad luck. So is it fair for them to fail to acquire the American Dream? Criminals get punished for breaking laws, athletes have to settle for 2nd or 3rd place and those whose work performance was lower that others will get little or no raises. It's just the way life works. It's what is considered fair, unless you are on the losing end. Fairness becomes subjective when the one getting the raise things it fair since he earned it while the one who didn't get the raise things it's not fair because he should get it anyways, even if their performance was less
than satisfactory.
So we come to the main point of my article. Democrats believe in fairness. They believe rich people have too much money and that those who were not so fortunate to be rich deserve to have more, whether they earned it or not. Why do I say that? Because Obama clearly stated he plans on giving 95% of the workforce tax cuts, but with 1/3 of them not paying taxes at all, that could mean only 1 of 2 thing:
1) Either Obama is lying about giving tax cuts to 95% of working Americans since 1/3 does not pay taxes anyways.
or
2) A tax cute to people who don't pay taxes means a tax refund. In other words they get money they did not work for (since it's not part of their wages) from someone who did earn it but was forced to give it up thru higher taxes.
Obama's own words:
"I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everyone"
Even a child can understand that spreading the wealth means taking from one and give to another. Ask a child to spread the wealth of his toys and see how many will say "OK" once they understand their toys are no longer theirs.
I work very hard for my money and I accept my wages because I know I did not try hard enough to earn higher wages. But I am working on earning more money, not thru Gov't help and higher taxes, but thru education, working harder and improving my performance in order to earn raises and promotions or even finding a better paying job somewhere else.
Fairness is a subjective word, the meaning depends on the persons perpective of what fairness is. Wendy's restaurant believes 5 pieces of chicken nuggets for $.99 is fair, Birger King believes 4 chicken tenders $1 is fair. McDonalds doesn't even have a $1 chicken nugget deal. What do you think?
Keep in mind, when heading to the voting stations this election year, educate yourself before you vote. make sure you understand the policies of you candidate. For you never know when their policies will make you feel good today and bad tomorrow. Fairness is not fair when someone believes they are getting the short end of the stick, you never know when that someone may be you.
So how can we vote for policies that imply fairness when the word fairness is a subjective word and not everyone will think these policies are fair? How is it being fair when one has to be forced to lose just to give the losers a chance toi win? Where is the incentive to improve when the road to victory is driven for you? Why even bother
to get an education when you will be a winner either way or a loser if you work too hard? Say what you want, this is what fairness thru Obama and the Democrats is all about.
Fairness is not fair when only 1 person gets to choose what is fair.