A PERSONAL POINT OF PRIVILEGE: Battle for Fairness — Sports, Business, and the American Promise

Things are a bit quieter at the Capitol this week. Most House bills have made their way to the Senate, and we’re waiting for Senate bills to trickle back in. So, while we’re keeping an eye on the next round of legislative action, let’s take a step back. This newsletter dives into a more philosophical topic: fairness. Because whether we’re talking about high-school track meets or the free market, the principle of fair play underpins it all.

Fairness on the Field: Where Rules Still Mean Something

Let’s start with sports, where fairness is usually easiest to spot. At their best, sports are pure meritocracy: the fastest runner wins, the strongest wrestler pins the opponent, the most skilled player scores the goal. But that only works if the rules are enforced and the playing field is level.

Take boys competing in girls’ sports. Even after hormone treatments, biological males maintain physical advantages: larger bone structure, greater lung capacity, stronger tendons. Calling this out isn’t bigotry; it’s biology. And when we ignore it, we’re not being “inclusive” — we’re being unfair to the girls Title IX was meant to protect.

Or consider performance-enhancing drugs. If everyone juices, the competition becomes less about training and more about who’s got the best pharmacist. Worse, it pressures clean athletes to cheat or get left behind. That’s not a fair contest; it’s an arms race in syringes.

Even wrestling, that ancient and noble sport, recognizes fairness through weight classes. A 120-pound competitor facing a 220-pound giant isn’t just outmatched; it’s a one-sided mugging. Weight classes aren’t about coddling anyone; they’re about creating a meaningful competition.

Sports teach discipline, perseverance, and respect for rules. But if we corrupt the idea of fair competition early, don’t be surprised if tomorrow’s leaders think the rules are optional everywhere else.

The New Goliaths: How Big Business Broke the Game

The same principles matter off the field. Small businesses know this all too well. If you’re a mom-and-pop pizza joint on the corner, you’re not just competing with another small pizzeria — you’re up against mega-chains that can negotiate cheaper ingredients, flood the market with ads, and undercut you for as long as it takes to run you out of town. That’s not fair competition; it’s a high-stakes game of chicken where the big guys have an 18-wheeler and you’re on a tricycle.

Or consider unions. They can protect workers, ensuring fair wages and safer conditions. Great. But when union membership becomes a mandatory toll booth for employment, or when cozy deals with politicians replace genuine advocacy, it shifts from “protecting the little guy” to rigging the game.

Healthcare is a prime example of what happens when fairness erodes. Independent medical practices get swallowed by giant corporate health systems. One day, you’re seeing Dr. Smith, who’s known your family for years. The next, you’re stuck on hold trying to book an appointment with “Provider #376.” Meanwhile, vertical integration — one corporation owning the hospital, clinics, insurance plans, and sometimes the pharmacy — tightens its grip on pricing and choice. Monopoly isn’t a free market; it’s the death of a free market.

You see the pattern in banking, agriculture, media — anywhere the big can muscle out the small. And it’s not just about size or efficiency. It’s about who can bend the rules, buy political favoritism, or simply bleed competitors dry. Real capitalism thrives on open competition, not corporate Goliaths stomping out every David in sight.

The Referee’s Been Bought: Government Tips the Scales

Here’s the kicker: too often, it’s the government tilting the scales. Subsidies here, special tax breaks there, regulatory carve-outs for favored industries, penalties for “noncompliance” that only major corporations can afford. In theory, government is supposed to be a neutral referee. In practice, it can be like a drunk umpire calling strikes for the team that bought him a round.

Look at energy policy. Instead of allowing markets and innovation to decide which energy sources rise to the top, massive subsidies prop up politically favored sectors while others are saddled with extra regulations. Whether it’s green energy grants or ethanol mandates, the outcome is the same: well-connected groups get advantages while everyone else pays the bill.

Occupational licensing is another example. Want to braid hair for a living? In some states, you need hundreds of hours of formal training, fees, and government approvals. Meanwhile, big corporations sometimes buy exceptions or craft regulations to lock out smaller competitors. That’s not protecting the public. It’s gatekeeping.

Allowing a kid on steroids into a high-school dash is no different than letting massive corporations lobby for rules that crush smaller competitors. The result is unfair, unhealthy, and not what competition should be about.

Diversity, Opportunity, and the Death of Merit

The irony is that real diversity — not just the DEI kind in a corporate slideshow — depends on fair competition. You get a diversity of businesses when startups aren’t crushed by conglomerates. You get a diversity of ideas when people can express themselves without worrying about being “canceled” for stepping outside corporate HR guidelines. And you get a diversity of athletic champions when rules ensure skill and dedication matter more than doping or checking some identity box.

Fairness fuels opportunity, letting the underdog succeed, the small-town kid earn that scholarship, or the immigrant entrepreneur build something from scratch. But it doesn’t happen by magic. Fairness requires vigilance, courage, and the willingness to call out cheating — whether it’s doping in the locker room, consolidating hospital systems, or slipping hundreds of pages of corporate giveaways into the next bill.

Why the American Promise Depends on Fair Play

Yes, life isn’t fair. That’s exactly why we fight to make our institutions as fair as we can. We may not control every cosmic dice roll, but we can insist that our games — on the field, in the marketplace, or in politics — use the same rulebook for everyone. Otherwise, faith in the system breaks down.

I support a diverse, free market that fosters real, honest competition. I want athletes, entrepreneurs, and citizens from every background to have a genuine shot based on skill and hustle, not political pull or corporate bankroll. Fairness isn’t a nicety; it’s the bedrock of opportunity, the fuel of trust, and the backbone of genuine progress.

If we don’t stand up for it — if we let the biggest bully bring a motorbike to the footrace — then we can’t act shocked when nobody shows up to compete.

Fairness matters. Let’s treat it like it does.