Fair is a place where you get cotton candy

I am tired of all the talk about fairness. I’m afraid we’re going to hear it for another 13 months. It appears to be Obama’s re-election campaign slogan. It is a great tagline but what does it really mean?

The problem is that “Fair” is not an absolute. It is riddled with personal and circumstantial bias. Is it fair that a bank shouldn’t be allowed to make a profit but Apple can? Everyone applauds Steve Jobs for everything he did to change the world (and we should) but guess what – he made billions doing it. Is that fair? Maybe Apple should sell their products for less so more people can afford them. That seems fair to me.

While we’re at it, Hollywood should base movie ticket prices on our income level. If a progressive tax system is fair then why not a progressive movie ticket price? Paying $8 to $10 to see a movie is a bigger sacrifice to someone living at the poverty level. Are you listening Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, and Sean Penn?

We need to get back to the truest of all of life’s axioms – Life is not fair.

There’s a great quote that has been attributed to many people over the years - “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor – rich is better”. The bottom line is that it sucks to be poor”. If it didn’t we’d all be poor. There’d be no incentive to be rich. I don’t know if that’s fair or not but that’s the way it is and must be in a free society.

We must do what we can to help the poor rise up but government directed redistribution of wealth is not the answer. Either is creating a rift in this country between the haves and have nots. That’s not leadership it’s just campaigning.

So if you want the cotton candy, go to the fair; but bring your wallet because it’s not free.