On the way to Sunday . . . What is fair?

BUZZ WORD: FAIR

What is fair?

In the culture of today, there are always ‘Buzz Words’ that become an overwhelming part of our public conversation. This is never more true than in our cycle of elections where words are thrown around with the assumption that we all know what they mean when in reality they are being re-defined by the user. The interesting part of ‘Buzz Words’ is that opposing sides of an argument will both use the same words to reveal why they are right.

The following is an excerpt from an article written by Dan Crawford for libertyunbound.com in June of 2011. I make no claims of support for or against the politics of the author or the website. I simple use his illustration to frame the question - What is fair?:

Suppose we are part of a group of friends from work who decide to go out to dinner together. “We” includes the owner of the business, the new person in the mailroom, and two of us in between. We choose a nice restaurant and enjoy our meal together. For some reason we cannot get separate checks and are given one large bill. What are some fair ways to pay for this meal — and what are some unfair ways?

Normally what happens is this: each person puts money into the kitty based on what he or she ordered. Often after the check goes around the table it isn’t quite enough because people forget to add in enough money to cover the tip or their second drink or the taxes or something. So the check goes around again while everyone refigures the cost and puts in a little more. So each pays based on what each received.

That is what we ordinarily regard as fair.

Now suppose the bill isn’t itemized and we can’t find out what each person received and therefore what each person owes. People might try to guess, but generally we feel that one fair way is for each to pay the same amount. If we do that, we recognize that people who ordered a more lavish dinner or an extra bottle of wine will be getting more than their fair share, but still the same amount for each person seems close to fair. So each person paying the same amount without regard to any other criterion looks fair to us...

So let’s go back to the arrival of the unitemized bill for the group’s dinner. How should we divide it up fairly? When the check came, the boss could offer to pay for everyone’s dinner. That would be voluntary, private charity. But imagine if, when that happened, the new mail room guy said, “Wow. This is great. I got this fabulous meal for free. I propose we do this every night! How many people are in favor?” Perhaps most of us who received the boss’ charity would vote to make him give it more often, but that would be clearly unfair...

No one would dream that three people should “vote” to make the fourth person pay for them...

The boss would be well within his rights to say, “You guys can do this again if you want, but count me out. I’m not interested in paying for everyone’s meal night after night.” Would it be fair or right to claim that he must do so because it was a “majority vote?”

Interesting to me that fairness is most often viewed within the perspective of the person that defines fairness.

Again, I ask you, What is fair?

Finally, I ask you, Has God treated you fairly?