Life isn't truly fair.

If it were, we'd all live the exact amount of time.  We'd all be the same height and weight.  We'd all have the same amount of money in our wallets and in our bank accounts.  We'd live in a house just like all the other houses.  We would all drive the same car.  We'd all be entitled to the same level of health care.

But life isn't truly fair.  Income inequality is real.  It is growing in the U.S., but it is also growing in other "developed" nations.  Some say it is racially based.  Some say it is gender based.  Scholars and studies point in different directions.  We can ponder the Gini coefficient, argue that calculation methodology changes skew current statistics, and so on.  Or we can deal with the real issues here and focus on ways to resolve them.

Life isn't fair.  A child born to a wealthy couple is much more likely to end up in a high-paying profession than a child born to a poor couple.  That's not to say that all children born to the poor are doomed to live below the poverty line, it just means that the probability of their becoming doctors or lawyers or CEOs is lower than those of someone born to a wealthy family. 

Life isn't fair.  If you have money it's easier to use that money to make more money.  Money in large quantities buys you time to do other things than putting a roof over your head.  Someone with money can use that time to make more money.  Money buys education, information and recreation.  Money buys better health.  Money buys a better brand of justice within the legal system.

In an ideal world, a truly fair world, we would all have the same amount of money.  We don't.

Life isn't fair.  We don't all get to earn the same amount of money in our varying professions.  Take a look at the hospital ward where I was, weekend before last.  There were RNs on the ward.  They put in the IVs.  They administered drugs through those IVs.  They dispensed the pills.  There were LVNs.  They measured vital statistics.  They checked to make sure the patients were doing well.  There were CNAs.  They walked patients who needed walking.  They made beds.  They changed diapers (where needed). 

The RNs make a lot more than the LVNs.  The LVNs make a lot more than the CNAs.  Isn't that a case of income inequality, by definition?  They all work for the same employer.  They're all working the same amount of hours in 12 hour shifts.  So why aren't they paid the same?  Because compensation is a function of the relative worth of the labor. 

I was seen by a variety of doctors.  Some were interns.  Some were residents.  Some were attending physicians.  Again, they all didn't earn the same amount of money.  Income inequality?  By definition it is.

Let's redefine the term.  Let's rename it "income inopportunity".  The real problem is that the "have-nots" don't have the opportunity to earn income as fast or as much as the "haves".  Then we can go about trying to fix it.  By making educational opportunity more equal.  By working to improve social structures so that the children of the poor get all of the same opportunities in education and other areas that shape us as people as the children of the rich.

Life is not truly fair.  But we can strive to make it more fair.