The World Isn’t Fair — And That’s Why Our Choices Matter
If you’re anything like me, you probably grew up believing that the world is mostly fair.
That if something was being sold in a store, it had gone through the right checks.
That if a product was cheap, it was because someone had figured out how to make it efficiently — not because someone else, somewhere, was paying the price.
It’s a comforting belief.
And it’s completely wrong.
The illusion of fairness
The other day I read a post (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/28/deluge-of-electronic-waste-turning-thailand-into-worlds-rubbish-dump) showing how America’s obsession with having so many brand new electronics all the time (Gotta have the newest iPhone every year, right?), means we have more e-waste than we can handle, so we just pay poor countries to let us dump it on them. A lot of it is toxic, and their people will suffer for decades or more because of this. And there’s no end in sight.
It made me feel depressed.
Can the country we live in really be OK with letting other people suffer so we can have all the shiny new things?
We live in a world built on convenience — one-click shopping, free returns, overnight shipping. It’s so easy to assume that if something is allowed to exist in that system, it must be fine. Surely governments and corporations wouldn’t let us do things that harm others, right? That would be unfair.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth:
The system doesn’t care about fairness.
It cares about profit, efficiency, and growth.
Corporations aren’t designed to protect people or the planet. They’re designed to make money. And when making money involves pollution, exploitation, or depletion — those costs are quietly pushed onto someone else. Usually, someone far away. Someone without power.
That’s what economists call “externalizing costs.”
But what it really means is that we get cheap goods, while others get dirty air, unsafe water, or depleted land.
When fairness is an illusion, responsibility shifts
It’s tempting to say, “Well, that’s not my job. Governments should regulate. Companies should do better.”
And yes, they absolutely should. But waiting for them to fix it is like waiting for a fox to redesign the henhouse.
Once we see the unfairness, the question changes from “Who’s supposed to fix this?” to “What can I do now that I know?”
That doesn’t mean living perfectly or giving up everything you love. It means living with your eyes open.
Choosing a little more intentionally.
Repairing instead of replacing.
Buying from companies that are transparent about their supply chains.
Voting for leaders who prioritize sustainability.
Supporting movements that demand accountability.
Yes, it’s unfair — but it’s still on us
Let’s be honest: it does suck that this responsibility falls on regular people.
We didn’t design this system. We didn’t decide that profit should outweigh human and environmental wellbeing. And yet, here we are — inheriting the mess, and the moral weight that comes with it.
But if not us, then who?
We are the ones living within the system every day. We’re the ones feeding it with our choices, our dollars, and our silence. That gives us power — frustratingly small sometimes, but still real. Every choice we make is a quiet vote for the kind of world we want to live in.
Fairness begins with awareness
Some costs don’t have dollar signs.
When we stop assuming that the world is fair, we start seeing where it isn’t — and that’s the beginning of change.
We can’t control every system, but we can control what we normalize through our daily actions.
And just maybe, if enough of us stop accepting the illusion, we can start to build something truly fair — not because it’s convenient, but because it’s right.
