Friday, February 12, 2010

Sowell: The Fallacy of ‘Fairness’

http://article.nationalreview.com/424381/the-fallacy-of-fairness/thomas-sowell

Some years ago, for example, there was a big outcry that various mental tests used for college admissions or for employment were biased and “unfair” to many individuals or groups. Fortunately, there was one voice of sanity — David Riesman, I believe — who said: The tests are not unfair. Life is unfair and the tests measure the results.

If by “fair,” you mean everyone having the same odds for achieving success, then life has never been anywhere close to being fair, at any place or time. If you stop and think about it (however old-fashioned that may seem), it is hard even to conceive of how life could possibly be fair in that sense.


Read the whole thing.  Actually, there's a series of four articles on "fairness".

Posted via email from The Blue Pelican

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