Freedom vs. Fairness

[Geee]

American Spectator:

As the third of seven children, I grew up in a family where fairness issues were constantly bubbling to the surface. It did us no good. Each of us pleaded in vain for relief from the unequal division of household chores and duties. And complain though we would, we couldn't stop the sometimes uneven distribution of rewards and presents. Our parents did more than reject complaints of unfairness; they were quick to condemn any display of self-pity.

"Life's not supposed to be fair," my father said. "Stop measuring," my mother said. "You're not supposed to measure."

But this was long before a new obsession in American political life: rising concern over the issue of fairness. Many people have started to measure -- and they are plainly envious of the good fortune of others. To borrow the words of a Japanese proverb, they have come to think that the nail that stands up is the nail that should be hammered down.

That was the spirit of the Occupy movement -- on Wall Street, in Oakland, and many places in between. Those claiming to be the 99% railed incessantly against the 1%. In setting out to make a public nuisance of themselves, the pity-me protest brigades let the world know how fed up they are with the unfairness of life.

President Barack Obama has nursed and cultivated this same sense of grievance. In his speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, he invoked fairness no fewer than 16 times. In one staccato burst, he called for "a tax code that makes sure everybody pays their fair share…[and] rebuilding the economy based on fair play, a fair shot and a fair share."

How fair is that?

Let me put the question another way.

How fair is it to fritter away hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money on green energy companies like Solyndra which have gone bankrupt?

How fair is it to launch a trillion dollar "stimulus" program that actually depressed the economy -- leaving unemployment higher than it was before -- and then turn around and demand a whole new stimulus program?

How fair is it to go on the greatest federal spending spree in modern history -- quadrupling the size of the annual deficit and raising serious concerns about the creditworthiness of the United States -- and then accuse critics of your profligacy as being solely concerned with promoting the interests of "millionaires and billionaires"?

[Valin]

Geee

 

That was the spirit of the Occupy movement -- on Wall Street, in Oakland, and many places in between. Those claiming to be the 99% railed incessantly against the 1%. In setting out to make a public nuisance of themselves, the pity-me protest brigades let the world know how fed up they are with the unfairness of life.

 

I had a Flight Chief in the ROK who would say..."Life is full of disappointments, this is one of them....Deal With It."

[nickydog]

Geee

 

That was the spirit of the Occupy movement -- on Wall Street, in Oakland, and many places in between. Those claiming to be the 99% railed incessantly against the 1%. In setting out to make a public nuisance of themselves, the pity-me protest brigades let the world know how fed up they are with the unfairness of life.

 

I had a Flight Chief in the ROK who would say..."Life is full of disappointments, this is one of them....Deal With It."

Good advice.

[Valin]

Geee

 

That was the spirit of the Occupy movement -- on Wall Street, in Oakland, and many places in between. Those claiming to be the 99% railed incessantly against the 1%. In setting out to make a public nuisance of themselves, the pity-me protest brigades let the world know how fed up they are with the unfairness of life.

 

I had a Flight Chief in the ROK who would say..."Life is full of disappointments, this is one of them....Deal With It."

Good advice.

 

“We must just *KBO.”

Winston Churchill

 

*Keep Buggering On