Fair Sharing

We all grew up with at least a little sense that 'sharing is caring.' We were scolded when we didn't share crayons during pre-K and learned (hopefully early on) that to be selfish is to be left a very lonely, dissatisfied individual. While I agree that the sharing lesson is valuable for any young child to learn, I have to ask: where is the border between caring sharing and utter invasion of personal property? This is a border that I believe some people in our modern society may have wandered over. Yes, there are numerous paths that I could take in order to discuss this, but for the purpose of not writing a 2 page blog post I will focus on the issue of health care. This is an issue that is being fully attacked by current presidential candidates. The general consensus is that health care has, for many Americans, become too expensive to handle comfortably. The debate, however, is how to solve these "high costs." I admit that I haven't exactly been following Clinton's policy on health care, but I am very familiar with Obama's (seeing as you can't listen to the radio anymore without hearing one of his campaign promises). He promises a seemingly incredible health care plan: one that costs only $2,500 for the average family. This may seem unbelievably cheap, but we have to remember one thing: this is NOT the full cost of this health care plan. Everyone will be expected to pay taxes to benefit the "common good" regardless of whether or not they actually want the federal health care plan. We are, essentially, all sharing to an extreme that will leave us all with one flat, inflexible mold that we must fit. This, I believe, is where another playground moral comes in: fairness. In a competition, is the victor expected to share his trophy with the losers? Naturally not. He (or she) has worked hard and has reaped the benefits of that hard work. He put in effort, time, and pain to reach the level that he is at. His reward is his and his alone. The majority of athletes will agree with this school of thought. Why, then, do some Americans regard money so loosely? Shouldn't a hardworking, successful individual be allowed to be successful? Should he have to pass out his "trophy" to those who were not able to make as much money as he was? Is fairness allowing everyone to get his or her own morsel or is it allowing anyone who can to be successful in his own right? This is a decision that you have to make on your own...