Fair Isn't Good

There is a lot of talk about fairness on the political scene.  It is the clarion call behind redistribution of wealth, reclassification of immigrant status and the reassignment of the deffinition of marriage.  Everything should be equally allocated, fairness should rule.  Sounds good on the surface until you realize that fair isn't good.

To be fair, every time your neighbor suffered a loss, you's have to suffer one too.  If your neighbor's son dies from cancer, fairness would dictate that yours die too - but would that be good.  Since most of the world suffers with malnutirion, lack of clean water and virtually no medical care; too be fair, we should have all of our blessings sripped from us and suffer along with them.

The recent 1% verses the 99% suggests that the wealth of the rich should be taken from them and divided (via taxation) with those less fortunate - sounds kind of like Robin Hood, doesn't it?  It is the premise that the Great Society has been opperating on for half a century.  How's it going?  Not so well because taking from the rich and giving to the poor doesn't make them rich or self-empowered but instead, insures they remain a permanent underclass.  Just look at the multi-generational welfare recepients and tell me they are doing well.

It may be fair to take money out of one person's pocket and hand it over to another but good isn't a hand out, good is a hand up.  It may seem fair to allow the hard-working illegal immigrants to have legal status but is it good to intice millions and millions more to pour across our southern border expecting the same treatment, many of whom are criminals in their own country.  Is it good to radically increase the debt burden on a nation that is swiftly moving toward insolvency?  18 trillion dollars in debt and many more times that in unfunded liabilities - is that OK, is that good?  And, is it even fair to all the immigrants who have spent thousands and have been waiting years for that same opportunity legally?

To be fair, the rich pay a disporportionate amount of taxes already and many give very generously to good causes (most of our hospitals and colleges came to be because of the rich), and that is good (couldn't help the play on words).  But good isn't throwing money or decrimalizing behavior, it is making real changes.  We need to seal the border and then work to speed up the process of immigrattion while lowering the fees.  We need to create jobs instead of just handing out money - there is work to do that is not getting done that would give individuals a sense of purpose and ownership while tackling some of our infastructure needs (regardless of how loud the unions holler).

I don't have all the anwsers or even know how to bring the few I've suggested into being necessarily.  But I knnow that what we have been doing for 50 plus years isn't working and I know that fair isn't good.  And I know that God's Word instructs us to "always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else" (1 Thess 5:15).  Jus' Sayn.