Fairness

Fairness is something that can only be established in certain (limited) conditions.

ie: You have two friends, they are hungry. You have two apples.
You give each friend one apple.

You have two hungry friends, and you are also hungry. You have two apples. This alteration makes fairness more difficult, and less precise. However, a fair solution still is easy to see; divide up the two apples in small enough pieces and each person gets an equal share.

You have two hungry friends, one hasn't eaten all day, one is slightly hunger. One Apple. Given the level of hunger is different, would it still be fair to give them equal shares of the apple? Is it fair to give the friend who hasn't eaten all day the entire apple?
Maybe get both friends to quantify their hunger, and use that as weights to measure what proportion of the apple each friend would get. (a messy solution for a messy situation).

Snap back to reality.... How about a more realistic example...

You have $500 in the bank. You have two children both starting college.
Both kids want to get into the same program; and each will need to pay a tuition of $250.
Here's a situation in which fairness can occur; Divide the $500 equally amongst the two kids.

You have $500, and two kids with different interests. One wants to get into a college program which costs $300, and the other kids program costs $200. Is it still fair to divide the $500 equally? Is it fair to divide the $500 unequally, to pay for their different interests?

You have $500, two kids. One wants to get into a college program that guarantees a job at the end, this program costs $500. The other child wants to get into a program that costs $100, which guarantees no job prospects.

....

In each example, I've taken a situation that calls for fairness, and added one more factor to consider. In life, most every situation has multiple dimensions, numerous factors..... They say that life isn't fair. I ask, how can it be.

Dare I say... it is unfair of people to want life to be fair.