Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I`m interested in another topic that seems to be growing, lately. It`s the idea of "fairness," as the term`s being bandied about in the media, as well as in life around me.

What it comes down to is that some people think it isn`t fair that other people can make a huge amount of money. If someone does make a lot of money, then "by rights," they should give some of it away. It should be given to the poor, the homeless, the sick, the dumb, or just about anyone. The single thing they can`t do with that money is keep it or spend it for themselves.

That`s just plain ridiculous!

In politics, if you tell the general public that you`re going to get them money from the rich people, you stand a good chance of being elected. It`s because those people somehow believe they have a right to demand money from the rich. The big tax cuts people are yelling about---tax cuts for the rich---that`s another demand. "Gimme your money! You gots too much, doode...and I wan` it!"

What about in business? More and more lawsuits are obviously absurd, even on the surface, because the defendant is some big corporation. The plaintiff had to really search and come up with a wide stretch of the imagination to link the defendant with the original problem.

For instance, someone buys a TV from a guy down the block, and it doesn`t work. They know they can`t sue the guy down the block, so they bring a suit against the TV manufacturer, claiming their product was unsafe, caused harm, and whatever else they can dream up.

What`s the deal with this envy thing? Where did it come from to such a wide extent? If you`re poor, so what? That`s your problem...not someone else`s problem! Other people can help, if they choose to help. But simply being poor, sick, or otherwise not happy doesn`t give anyone the right to *demand* that they have a better life, right?

What about when small businesses get sued because "everyone knows that business people are rich!"

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Melissa Yamello
Owner/Designer
Storybook Studio
www.storybookstudio.net

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"If you`re poor, so what? That`s your problem...not someone else`s problem!"

Great post Craig......I couldn`t agree with you more.

Is it envy?

Do CEOs have the right to nickel and dime their employees into poor working conditions while they drive hummers and fly in private jets?

I wonder how much corporate corruption plays into peoples` attitudes that things "aren`t fair"? Because you know what... an awful lot of ordinary, decent people have found themselves on the losing end of corporate malfeasance in recent years, and it really and truly isn`t fair. Certainly media coverage of these things stokes those fires, and the number of people actually harmed by corporate malfeasance is very small compared to the number who imagine it to be so. Nevertheless, I think it contributes to a general breakdown in confidence in the rule of law. If the world`s largest corporations can make their money basically by stealing, then it stands to reason that folks down on Main Street have every right to band together and steal what they can, too.

—paula

This post began because of a commercial I`m hearing lately for that company who sells an eBay package. I can`t remember their name (could look it up, but don`t care), but they`re the ones talking about selling something while you`re asleep.

Their latest commercial begins with a story about how "you look around and everyone seems to be living the good life except you..." and so forth. It goes on and on about how it`s not fair that you`re struggling while other people are getting rich. The solution, of course, is to send them money and they`ll make you rich.

Ever since I read "The Hidden Persuaders," back when I was a kid, I`ve had an ear for subliminal advertising and the underlying implications and premises of language. I`ve also been paying attention to modern-day politics, based on entitlements and welfare programs----socialism, basically.

What I`m seeing is the crossover connection between politics and business. Not only do people expect the government to take care of everything, they also expect large businesses to do the same. A "job" (in a corporatiion) is supposed to be a two-way event. Instead, people today believe it`s a one-way thing.

People with a job in a large enterprise seem to believe they need only show up and breathe, and the corporation (employer) should then take care of all problems in their lives. It`s as if people these days believe that simply existing is an exceptionally high value!

Throughout history, human life has been the one thing that`s been the *least* valuable! Nobody in the past has ever cared how many people get killed, how many people die from illness, or anything else. We can always make more, after all. Even children have been a commodity in the past, where having children helped in the struggle to survive.

It`s only been in the very recent few decades that human life has been elevated to the near-unique! Aside from such things as abortion, euthanasia, death penalty, and other related major social issues, I`m suggesting the same underlying trend applies to politics and business. And I`m suggesting that one of the founding premises is envy.

Not only envy, but "fairness." There`s no argument at all about whether a corporate executive can "nickel-and-dime" employees while driving a hummer unless we include "is that fair."

When did "fairness" become an entitlement, right, or objective criteria for anything on a social level? Do you think "fairness" and "envy" are related?

I don`t know about other nations but here in the US "fairness" became an entitlement in 1776: "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice (i.e., `fairness`), ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare (i.e., `fairness`) and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity (i.e., `entitlement`) do ordain and establish this constitution etc..."

We are all told from the time we are old enough to understand that here in America, everyone has an equal shot and that hard work is all you need to become successful. This has historically been, and remains, manifestly untrue for huge swaths of the populace. If people are envious it is because they see that this is the case, and that it doesn`t align with what we`ve all been taught in school about life in America, which is supposed to be "just"  with "secured blessings of liberty" and all that. People feel that they have been ripped off from what our system of government is supposed to entitle them to, and getting ripped off isn`t fair.

This is the biggest stumbling block I have with the whole objectivism thing. It`s just so terribly mean. It is equally as mean as the communism that spawned it.

—paula

No, justice is not the same thing as fairness.

It is in the minds of 99.9% of anyone you talk to. You will have to convince them that justice and fairness aren`t the same thing if you want to divorce fairness from political entitlement in the US.