Fairness Requires Winners and Losers

February 11, 2010 at 7:11 am | Posted in Political | Leave a comment

Thomas Sowell is currently running a blistering series in his column at Townhall.com focused on the liberal perversion of “fairness.” In his latest entry, Part III, Sowell highlights the difference between genuine fairness and the Left’s contrived variety:

People like philosopher John Rawls call treating everyone alike merely “formal” fairness. Professor Rawls advocated “a conception of justice that nullifies the accidents of natural endowment and the contingencies of social circumstances.” He called for a society which “arranges” end-results, rather than simply treating everyone the same and letting the chips fall where they may.

Sowell later evokes the example of track meets, citing them as unfair by this liberal standard for discriminating against the slow. This is a fantastic analogy. Genuine fairness is exemplified in all runners beginning at a designated starting line, following the same course, and finishing whenever they happen to. The Left’s perversion of fairness would be exemplified in all runners starting wherever necessary for all to finish at the same time. In this way, the Left’s “fairness” is fundamentally opposite of actual fairness, a rigged game, handicapped to the point of absurdity.

Much like the distinction which must be made between rights and entitlements, this accurate perception of fairness must dominate the public discourse. Head on over to Townhall.com and check out Sowell’s series “The Fallacy of ‘Fairness’”:

Part I

Part II

Part III