Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Fairness Rules

John Kinsella: Is this heaven?
Ray Kinsella: It's Iowa.
--Field of Dreams

Nice observation by Prof Williams. The best rules are those that we would be satisfied with even if our worst enemy is in charge of decision-making.

Such rules promote true fairness. Fairness occurs when all are treated equally according to the rules. Equality under the law.

When rules are not subject to discretion or bias by those who govern, then those rules are fair.

Williams notes that the Bill of Rights were written because the founders did not trust those in power to govern fairly on their own. Instead, government officials would be looking for favors.

He suggests that if, after we die, we find anything like the Bill of Rights at our next destination, then we'll know that we are in hell. Because they seek to protect against rulers that cannot be trusted, the Bill of Rights would be appropriate in hell, as Satan can never be trusted.

Only in heaven would rules in the name of fairness, where all are treated equally, be unnecessary.

1 comment:

dgeorge12358 said...

if mankind is diverse and individuated, then how can anyone propose equality as an ideal? Every year, scholars hold Conferences on Equality and call for greater equality, and no one challenges the basic tenet.

But what justification can equality find in the nature of man? If each individual is unique, how else can he be made 'equal' to others than by destroying most of what is human in him and reducing human society to the mindless uniformity of the ant heap?
~Murray Rothbard