Equality of Luck

Suppose there are two farmers, Robinson and Friday. There are two distinguishing features of the farmers: Friday drinks beer all day and farms occasionally while Robinson works hard all day and reaps twice as much. Most people would say Robinson's extra earnings are just, since he is rewarded for working twice as hard or because his mind is twice as clear or brilliant. Even though Robinson has more resources than Friday, this also seems fair, since the laws of reality that reward labor and value are applied equally. But let's say that Friday also happens to be lazy, and throws all his empty beer cans onto a heap in the corner, and one day the price of aluminum skyrockets, putting Friday's earnings far above Robinson's. The situation remains fair, since the laws of reality continue to apply equally to each - the price of alluminum was the same for both farmers - even though the outcomes were different. It also remains just, since the rewards for labor and value dictated by the nature of reality remain upheld. Unfortunately, this law does not always operate smoothly. Sometimes there is an element of luck involved which gives outcomes the appearance of injustice and unfairness. This can have a crippling affect on individuals; it shows them that their carefully calculated formulas for estimating the rewards of labor and value were wrong - shattering their entire view of reality and replacing it with an irrational, unpredictable view that is inhospitable to human life. Unfortunately, the only way to sterilize this dangerous and immoral facet of reality would require redistribution, injustice and unfairness, and so we are doomed to cope with and overcome this property, and hope this doesn't involve holding a malleable, uncertain view of reality.