I recently watched an interview with several college students who were asked a simple question: would you rather live under capitalism or communism? Almost every one of them answered communism. Their reasoning seemed noble enough—they said that under communism everyone would be cared for, and the government would make sure no one was left behind.
The interviewer smiled and followed up with a question that brought those ideals down to a personal level. He asked, “If equality means fairness, would you be willing to give part of your grade point average to students with lower grades so that everyone could be equal?”
The mood changed instantly. Every student said no. One quickly replied, “That is different. I worked hard for my grades.”
And there it was—the truth that exposes the illusion. Equality sounds noble until it costs us something. It is easy to cheer for redistribution when it affects someone else’s wallet, someone else’s effort, someone else’s success. But when the cost becomes personal, conviction turns to self-preservation.
This moment revealed something deeper than political ideology. It exposed human nature. We crave fairness, but only when we are on the receiving end. We admire generosity, but only when it comes from others. We demand equality, but we also cling tightly to the fruits of our own labor.
True compassion is not about forced equality—it is about voluntary generosity. There is a world of difference between taking from someone to make things even and giving of yourself to lift someone higher. One is driven by envy; the other by love. Ronald Reagan once said, “We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added to it.” A government that promises to give you everything must first take everything from someone else. Eventually, when it runs out of “someone else’s” resources, it comes for yours.
What those college students revealed was not just hypocrisy—it was honesty. They instinctively knew their grade point average was the result of effort, sacrifice, and personal responsibility. They understood fairness when it applied to their own work. But in that realization lies the deeper moral: everyone believes in sharing until it costs them something valuable.
You could call it the mirror test. Everyone loves equality until they see their own reflection in the equation. True justice does not come from taking what others have earned—it comes from being willing to give what you can, freely and without resentment. Equality that demands no personal cost is not equality at all—it is entitlement disguised as virtue.
King Solomon wrote, “A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied” (Proverbs 13:4). Those words cut to the heart of it. Laziness always wants the reward without the work. The diligent, however, find satisfaction because their fulfillment comes from effort, discipline, and purpose. God honors hard work, not entitlement.
The Reverend William Boetcker once said, “You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.” Those words still ring true. Real fairness begins with personal responsibility, not government control. It is born from character, not coercion.
Until we learn that truth, we will continue to live in the illusion of fairness—a world where everyone wants equality, but no one wants to work for it.