Doug, While we Americans have an overdeveloped sense of what is fair play and the importance of equality of opportunity, equality is a concept that does not, in fact, exist in nature. Taking your argument out to it's logical conclusion, let's say you allow both a genius and a moron the equal opportunity of taking an exam to qualify for the single available seat in a medical school, does not the genius have an innate advantage over the moron? Is it immoral, therefore, for the genius to succeed in the exam where the moron has no chance of success and claim the prize? Obviously, it is neither immoral nor unethical, but neither is it really fair because nature has not distributed her gifts fairly between these two people. To be truly fair, all life would have to be lived at the lowest possible denominator, the level of the least-gifted person.
Let's take this analogy a step further. Let's say the moron decides to cheat on the exam and wins the seat. All he has done, really, is even the playing field to make up for his intellectual inferiority, so does that mean his action was moral and ethical? Not in my opinion it doesn't.
You cannot make everyone innately equal, but you can give everyone an equal opportunity to apply and develop their natural gifts. So, let's say a genius and a moron decide to try their hands at making money in the markets. If the genius succeeds and the moron fails, is that immorality on the part of the genius? Not if he plays the game fairly affording the moron a chance of success equal to his own. But if the moron uses fraud and deceit to manipulate the odds of winning in his favor and level an uneven playing field, that, IMO, is morally and ethically wrong.
Our entire form of society and government is based upon the Rule of Law, which guarantees equal and fair opportunity in the pursuit of individual happiness. It is not equal and fair to take advantage of another through fraud and cheating. It is fair to apply one's God-given talents morally and ethically to obtain one's goals.
Newly
