Free Stuff vs. Fair Share

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We like free stuff and we all want life to be fair. Yet, we often miss out on free stuff and there’s no argument that life is not always fair.

So what should be free and what should be fair? The answers might surprise you.

Free Trade Vs. Fair Trade

Would unrestricted free trade be fair to all those who want to trade goods or services with other countries.

Or should fair trade be the order of the day? Who would do the deciding about what’s fair and what’s not? Fair to whom, and why, and how?

Would fair trade be dollar for dollar, equal weight, spatula for spatula?

Are the clouds beginning to part? Not so easy when we have to pick and choose is it?

Free Speech Vs. Fair Speech

The water really gets muddy here. Would you be OK with re-writing the first amendment to make it fair? It might look like this:

“Congress shall make no unfair law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the fair exercise thereof; or abridging the fairness of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people fairly to assemble, and to petition the government fairly for a redress of grievances.” (Source)

Changing one word redefines the whole meaning of this amendment. And the power of free speech vanishes when fair speech takes over.

Free Stuff Vs. Fair Share

Is free stuff really free? Who decides what a fair share really is? Can something be free and fair? — Highly doubtful.

The weather is free but there’s a big difference between the daily temperatures on Hawaiian Beaches and International Falls, Minnesota. Hardly fair.

The air is free but it’s pretty unhealthy in China compared to the American Midwest.

Is that fair?

People who don’t have money think those that do have too much. So out comes the fair share card. They’re not paying their fair share.

Sounds like a punishment for success. They made it, I didn’t, they need to pay because it’s unfair they have so much and I have so little.

Some Final Thoughts

I guess we should all become Oliver’s. “Please Sir, I want some more.” But is Oliver being fair to the other kids?

Is there enough to give everyone more? What if some don’t want more; do they get it anyway — just to be fair?

How long before third helpings are fair to everyone?

Fair and free hold no meaning until someone, somewhere, attaches an ideology or cause. Then they take on the power of emotion.

But the definitive definition still eludes us.

Is that fair?

I guess the last thought to ponder is the one true freedom we all have. We have free thought.

Your thoughts might not be fair thoughts but I can’t charge you for it or take it from you without your consent. It’s pretty much free and yours to dispense as you see fit.

This blog might be free for you to read but not for me to write. Yes, I charge for what I’m thinking.

You get the best of both worlds. You get my free thoughts and I get my fair share for expressing them.

Sounds very fair to me.