Generally most people I know have a certain sense of what they think is fair. This is a value that is taught us to us at an early age. We like to think that we treat others fairly and would want to be treated fairly by others.
The point is that fairness is something that doesn't actually exist in the natural world. Animals hunting for food don't care about being fair.
There is also no fairness on the battlefield. Ultimately when people are trying to kill each other neither one is willing to die for fairness. The best tactic is to apply overwhelming force using the element of surprise.
This carries forward to the business world. Here of course some fairness is imposed by outside forces, but remove that and we would see true ruthlessness.
Fairness only exists where it is imposed by an authority, parents, referees and umpires, and Government agencies. Even then it is only at best unequally imposed. From the day of our birth some are fortunate, living in comfortable homes, going to good schools and having a support network while others are raised in substandard conditions, eating irregularly and going to sub par schools.
A recent study showed that the best indicator of what are adult status would be is the status of our parents. Yes some overcome their humble beginnings and some descend the social ladder, but these are by no means the norms and require some extraordinary motivation or talent.
We pretend opportunity exists for all and point to the few success stories as examples, but statistically the number that overcome there beginnings is not the norm, it is the rare exception.
This is such an ingrained issue in our society that I'm not sure it is solvable in the conventional sense, but I do know that ignoring it is not the answer.
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