Ways of Deciding Who Gets What

Since we live in a place with limited resources, everybody can’t have everything they want all the time. You may have to find a way to decide with other Learners who should have more food, a toy, or an experience first. Here are some ways to do it:

1. Inside Way: “It’s good to give people what they need.” Think about everything you have been through and everything they have been through, and decide what's best based on everything.
2. Urgency Way: “It’s good to give people what they say they need the most.” Give it to the person who looks like they need it the most. Yelling, crying, looking sad, and stomping are some of the ways you could measure urgency.
3. Equal Way: “It’s good to give people an equal amount of resources.” Each person gets an equal about of whatever resource is available.



4. Fair Way: “It’s good to give people fair amounts of resources.” Each person gets as much of a resource as they need. (Example: Imagine you were trying to keep an elephant and a mouse from starving. If you gave them an equal amount of food, the elephant might starve, and the mouse would have more food than he needs. If you gave them a fair amount, no one would starve.)
5. Burden Way: “It’s good to give people who are very dedicated to doing good what they need.” Since the person who gets the resource will have an advantage over others, the person who would be willing to help the most with their advantage should get it. Each person lets it be known what they would do to make the world a better place if they got it. Example: “If you let me have this experience, I will use what I learn from it to help two kids to have this experience when I grow up.”

The Inside Way would be the best way for people who have spent no time apart or who are Everything Knowers. But, if two people are apart and both have a very bad day, they would each think they should get what they want. So the Inside Way won’t work sometimes. There would have to be other ways to decide who gets what. However, parts of this way may work if two people are very open and honest about their limits and resources.

The Urgency Way would be a good way to solve the problem of being apart. Whoever appears neediest should get whatever they need. There are some good and bad things about doing things this way too. If two people who use this way are very honest, it could work out well. There are several problems, however:

• If one comes under the care of a Pretending Person or Misguided Person, they will copy their sly and deceptive ways to make it seem like they need more than you.
• If the other person views you as less than others, they may think your frustrated feelings don’t mean anything and aren’t connected to making the world better.
• If one person thinks it will be best if they get the resource over another person, they will just be louder or cry more than the other person. If that other person thinks the same of themselves, they will both get louder and louder until everyone’s ears hurt.

The Equal Way would be a good way to solve the problems of the Urgency Way. Everybody gets an equal share of the resource. If people are hungry, split the food. If they want an experience, they can take turns every five minutes to have that experience. The equal way might work well in a lot of cases. In others, it may not. If two kids want an orange, but one had never eaten an orange before in their life, while the other had just eaten one earlier that day, maybe it would be best to give the whole orange to the kid who had never had one before.

The Fair Way would be a good way to solve some of the problems of the Equal Way. Everybody gets a fair portion of what they need. Imagine if two people, one rich with $100, and one less rich with $10, want to build a road between their houses. They could both put in $10 to pay for it, but then the less rich one would have nothing left. If the less rich one paid $2 and the rich one paid $18, that would be a fair solution. But what if two kids want to share a stick in a fair or equal way, and the only reason one kid wants it is to hit others with it?

The Burden Way might be a good way to solve some problems with the other ways. The person who gets it is the one who’s willing to help the most people with it. Unfortunately, a way to talk about it hasn’t been invented yet. So you cannot look to any Wise Leaders for a way to have a conversation about it. There are still some questions on how a conversation like that would work.

• Would everybody have to say “…or something even better,” whenever they make a deal? Since situations change, you might have the opportunity to do more good but in a different way. Say you promised someone to feed 10 hungry people in the future if a person gave you their last candy bar. However, in the future, you live in a world where everyone is well fed, so instead, you build a playground for kids.
  • Does that count as a fair trade?
  • Should they have said, “…or something even better”?
  • Should everyone agree that they don't need to say “…or something even better” when they use the Burden Way?
• Could you trade burdens with other people?
• If you are unlucky and never get the resources to repay your burden, but your friends get lucky, is it OK if they repay your burden for you?

Balance

People have poor balance when they start learning to walk. They may overshoot their steps and fall backwards. Then they’ll say, “I'm not gonna do that again,” and next time they undershoot their steps and fall forward. The time after that, they overdo it again and fall backward again. Learners may also have trouble trying to balance when-to-take and when-to-give, when they are trying to decide who gets what. Sometimes, they might overshoot and take too much. Sometimes, they might undershoot and take too little. Just because they make a mistake, it doesn't mean they are selfish.