, Columnist
The Economy Needs a Little Bit of Unfairness
His rulings apply only on the field.
Photographer: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images North AmericaThere are a lot of reasons, some deserved and some not, for Americans’ distrust of their institutions. Lately I have been thinking about one of the more counterintuitive ones: Our schools, governments and even employers are trying too hard to make things fair.
In so doing, they are not only setting themselves up for failure — and eventually mistrust — but they are also misunderstanding the galvanizing role that unfairness plays in a competitive economy.