Fairness is paying people according to how much they produce.
If I work harder, do not waste time, am more efficient, and produce more in an hour, I should be paid more.
How is that envy to reward those who are more productive?
Years ago, when I lived in the Dallas area, I took a temp job in a warehouse because I could not find a construction job.
At the end of the first day, I had loaded twice as much product on trucks as those working next to me.
I asked the boss for a raise. He said under union contract, he could not give me more than others.
The next day, after I worked about 2 hours, I set down to rest.
The boss came by and asked why I was not working,
I told him I was waiting for the others to catch up with me.
He fired me.
Hard work, esp. in a consumer driven society we have now, is not what pays... good acting, being presentable, making people feel good about your product is what pays - even if you have to lie and manipulate your customer. Look at all the people who invest in Amazon, and yet they're not even turning a profit! But the APPEARANCE... that's what people invest in, not actual work and product.
In some lines of work, this means being belittled, customers complaining, and you apologizing for things that are far removed from your responsibility (what fairness! when working means taking crap from customers for others'/their own mistakes and policies! so you can appease what OTHER people who aren't in your situation thinks is fair!). In sales, your customers may be other business owners, and again, talking up your product, being likeable is what sells it - not necessarily the WORK you put into that product.
My husband does dispatch work, he knows the machines and fixes/tunes them, and he knows how the plant works inside and out. My husband has worked hard in the same plant for 20 years.
But THAT is not what sells his product and THAT'S not what keeps the customers he does have. What sells his product is meeting the unreasonable demands of customers that costs him money in the form of extra trips, and competing with monopolistic companies that undercuts his prices and offers free products for x months to our customers, or customers he would want to have.
You see, HARD WORK isn't what this economy is about anymore. It is about who has the most money and the best smile. We don't produce - we consume. So it's natural then to see consuming welfare recipients, because the whole danged thing works that way.
I was addressing our attitudes, and I wasn't saying that it's fair... I mean, I worked at McDonald's - I scrubbed the floors, I scrubbed dishes, I cleaned trash cans, I keep the drink bar spotless, I swept, mobbed, I worked VERY HARD... but someone who has a nicer smile, just so bubbly, advances ahead of me even when they don't put in the elbow grease and has the same knowledge I do... because we are not driven by hard work, but by kissing butt. I went to work WHEN I WAS ON DISABILITY, all bills paid, because I wanted to be productive and do something with my time. The nurses, my doctor, everyone was impressed with my drive to be self-sufficient, because taking the bus and going to work was something no one else in that health care program would do... cos they didn't want to or couldn't. Believe me, I know about unfairness in work. But that's also why I sympathize with people not wanting to do it.
But the point of the parable is compassion seldom looks fair, anyway, and it's one reason people won't show it to others... they just don't deserve it, IT'S NOT FAIR.
