Wealth is unfair

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“Life isn’t fair,” my four-year-old granddaughter once told me. She offered this judgment as a thoughtful observation, not a whining complaint.

I remember taking genuine pleasure in her remark—not just a delight in her early capacity for philosophical reflection, but also a sense that this particular wisdom could be of blessing in the life ahead of her, to temper excessive expectations and guard against disfiguring resentments. The unfairness of life—the cruelties of fate and the uneven distribution of goods and opportunities—was bound to confront her many times, and I wanted her to be ready.