Fairness

There was a time when we thought of the world as effectively infinite, where its riches could be had simply by finding and taking them.  Of course since earliest times the challenge was for those who found the resource, i.e. a tree full of ripe fruit, to keep it for themselves.

So first come first served was effectively the order of the world.  This is in fact the fundamental requirement for a capitalist society, the ability to keep your assets and use them as you see fit.

However the world is not infinite.  Society has to decide what is fair?

We see wealth being concentrated in fewer and fewer people as time passes. The old saying about the rich getting richer is truer today than it ever was.  It becomes especially problematic as technology finds replacements for human power.

The ability to get a entry level job and work your way up has become more and more a thing of the past.  We hear about the gig economy where people survive by having relatively short term gigs, one after the other.

The security of working at a company for years, getting promotions and pay raises and building up a pension is becoming a bit of an anachronism.  Instead everyone has to constantly compete and reinvent themselves, unable to achieve security or decent benefits, saddled with student debt, constantly on edge.

Of course its not all that way, but its is moving towards it.

Should each person have some guaranteed security and an opportunity to excel or should it remain a dog eat dog sort of world?

A rich country like ours can certainly help its citizens to a certain level of security regarding education, health care and old age pensions.  Or we can have the elites and the rest of us.