Category

Free (not fair) Markets

• 01.28.09
  Fair
  Free (not fair) Markets (0)

  As one who has long been opposed to fair trade, fair wages, and other such forms of political favoritism, I was fascinated by Bart Wilson's article, "Fair's Fair," in The Atlantic. It contains this paragraph: Did you know that fair is one-to-one untranslatable into any other language--that it is distinctly Anglo in origin? And a relatively new word at that? (Late 18th century, actually--the industrial revolution apparently also vastly enhanced our capacity to complain.) But the twisted history of "fair" is even more interesting than that. For the original antonym of fair is not, as most modern Americans would probably ...