Did Obelix get it right after all?

Did Obelix get it right after all?

Always was and still am a fan of the Asterix books – right from when I was a tiny tot and could barely read!  They have been a large part of my early reading life – to this day! So many colorful characters.

In the story about Cleopatra – at some stage Obelix is tasked in cutting the (poisoned cake) into 3 pieces to be shared with his other two friends. - Which he did.
If you pay close attention  - he’s been asked to cut three pieces......

Ask any child – they have an innate understanding of what is fair or equal.
Let me set the scene:
Imagine two (early school years) siblings living at home – being tasked by their parents (to work together) and mow the lawn and do the lawn-edging on a weekly basis.  In reward they get (earn) a bar of chocolate. They are told to share the spoils of their earnings.  

Now you know how this plays out.  The older sibling (being deemed more mature or wiser or just by being older) will usually do the task of splitting the bar of chocolate up and do the handouts! You KNOW and can always see it on the (usually younger) sibling’s face if they think they have been swindled or robbed of their “fair share”.  (as a sideline – educationally this works by saying one does the dividing up and the other gets to choose first, which share/half they pick!!!)
Assuming they both worked hard and equally on the task at hand, you would expect a 50/50 split?!

Now lets assume that one sibling is not doing its task or only doing a half task or none at all or is perhaps handicapped and thus not able to pull equal weight  - how should the bar of chocolate be broken up – still at 50/50???  75/25??? 
60/40??

Further – lets assume that the older sibling is of an enterprising nature and goes and canvas’s the neighbors and after some time and with a lot of hard work gets to mow 6 lawns of other peoples properties (thus earning 6 or more bars of chocolate) – while the other sibling sits at home and is not involved in this enterprise at all.  How should the enterprising sibling share in the spoils of her hard work (if at all)????  

Will there be an incentive for the non-working sibling to be involved in mowing the neighbors lawns,  I F  they get half of the spoils regardless???  How about the motivation off the other sibling to go out and be enterprising, if there is an expectation to give away most of that “income”.  Where is the fairness in that?  (We see this playing out in China with the ‘laying at work” attitude and of course saw it in old Soviet Union where the attitude was – ‘We pretend to work as long as they pretend to pay us’!! )

You will notice the original direction from the parents – there is an expectation of ‘Sharing’, but no qualification on how.  The discussion here really is:  fair vs equal.  Equal is (as per Obelix) always straight forward.  I often say to my wife: “May I have the bigger half” and the standard reply always is: “There is no such thing as a ‘bigger half’ “  Obelix was just told to cut three slices – no qualifying on how big the three should be, and of course there were only three pieces! Job done.

Recently the NZ Government commissioned a report on who pays how much (income) tax – focusing on 311 ‘rich’ families and predictably it has created a lot of discussion.  
My takeaway on that is, unless you say “equal” tax (eg. a flat rate of 10 % or whatever number you want to use and is paid by EVERYONE)  you end up in a discussion on what is “Fair”!

Everyone's understanding of what is ‘Fair’ differs greatly.  We need to settle on what is ‘FAIR’ soon, or there will always be a part of our population that will be envious of the other few enterprising folks. (which by the way is listed in the Ten Commandments and deemed to be not a good idea – to be envious of your neighbors cattle/sheep/wife/land etc etc etc)

 

 

Will the sibling be envious of the other, who gets to eat 6 bars by itself without sharing??     You bet.
Will it get inspired to go out and be just as enterprising as the other sibling???                      Perhaps 

How much will the enterprising sibling be motivated to be successful, if the other demands a ‘share’ regardless on how much contribution happened?? 

What will influence that decision?  A social conscious / love/concern for the sibling and its willingness or abilities – or lack thereof??  
 

Food for thought.

Now please – let me have my share of lunch . . . .



Have fun!