Is Life Fair? Essay

Is life fair? This is a question which has always been asked by people from all walks of life since time immemorial. It was always asked by people who have less in life. For people from Africa – they who have always been featured in international magazines looking like skeletons wrapped in desiccated skin, life certainly is unfair. They are the people who cannot even eat one whole nutritious meal in one week. They only exist because of the kindness of others. If help comes, then they can eat; if none arrives, they have to forgo eating and patiently wait for another day. They could not even afford to wrap themselves in the flimsiest garment to protect their bodies from the elements. When they get sick – which happens very often because of their state of deprivation – they cannot get their hands on the simplest medicine because none is available to them. They are supposed to be our brothers and sisters in God who were given free will just like ours. However, in their situation, one could not help asking the question: Are they in any position to exercise their free will? The answer is undoubtedly a resounding NO! How could they when they could not even lift a finger to defend themselves from biting insects? They who have been photographed in an apparently weakened state being watched by waiting vultures preparing to eat their remains as soon as they close their eyes in dying surrender? These unfortunate people of Africa could not be heard asking if life is fair because even their voices have already been swallowed by poverty and deprivation. In spite of their silence, however, nobody can deny that life has indeed been very unfair for these ill-fated, luckless, forgotten children of God. The situation in Africa is by all means extreme. One does not need to cite such severe cases nor go to far-off Africa, however, just to establish that life has never, or could never be fair. There are numerous examples of life’s unfairness right here in the country. Even in America, the unequal distribution of wealth is very evident. There are parents who could barely send their children to school because of poverty. There are high school graduates (in fact majority of them) who choose not to proceed to college because they would rather work and help support their families. Some defenders of the American way of life would often flaunt that this is because jobs are readily available in America. This is merely a smoke screen, however. Who would not aspire to have a college degree if given the opportunity? It is not unknown to everybody that the high-paying jobs are only available to college graduates and holders of master or doctoral degrees. As a result, these people enjoy more of life’s blessings than their fellow citizens who work after high school. Of course, there are student loans available to those who qualify. Unfortunately, this program is not readily available to everybody, aside from the fact that the loan has to be paid with interest some years after graduation. Meanwhile, the family members are already reeling from the effects of poverty. So instead of availing of these student loans and go to college, young people choose to work instead. In the meantime, rich kids go to college, work for their master’s degrees and even proceed to the doctoral programs and get as much as five, six, or even ten times higher salaries afterwards. So is life fair in the United States? The picture becomes slightly different when one visits the third world countries. Because college education is comparatively cheaper in such countries, many of the high school graduates could afford to go to college and in fact do so. Unfortunately for them, jobs are not available even to college graduates. Some of the more fortunate find their way to developed countries like the United States and land good-paying jobs. The rest, however, have no other option but to stay at home and basically work for loose change, become underemployed, or even join the ranks of the unemployed despite their diplomas. In such countries, it is usual to find college graduates working as busboys in restaurants, crews in supermarkets, and taxi drivers. Is life, then, fair?