Here's a phrase you hear fairly often when you cover small business policy: "even playing field."

You hear it when Main Street retailers complain that online retailers don't have to collect sales taxes when they sell across state lines.

You hear it in the ‘Net neutrality debate when online micro-publishers complain about the possibility of being left in the Internet ghetto, forced to compete based on who can afford enhanced delivery instead of on the merits of their content.

The only problem with all this is that even playing fields just don't happen in the real business world.

If Main Street retailers and online retailers both have to collect sales taxes on every purchase, you still won't have an even playing field. Main Street retailers don't have to pay sales taxes in more than one jurisdiction. They also don't have to charge for shipping.

Online micro-publishers might reasonably be able to compete to some degree on the merits of their content but, since giant service providers like AOL and MSN generally do business with giant content providers like the New York Times Company and Time Warner, niche publishers will have limited access to their market anyway.

Given all that, it's worth asking what an "even playing field" is, especially in the context of government intervention.

In both of these examples, the issue is supposed to be fairness, isn't it? But there are two sides to every story. What looks unfair from one side often isn't quite so unfair when you back away and look at the big picture. Often enough, in their attempts to even the playing field for one set of folks, lawmakers wind up making it even more uneven for a different set of folks.

Maybe the pursuit of an even playing field isn't realistic enough a goal to talk about. At least, not out there in the marketplace.

And I find it very interesting that lawmakers so rarely talk about evening the playing field when it comes to the stuff they might more reasonably turn their attention to, like taxes and regulations.

Nobody asks for equality of outcome. But if those lawmakers want to take equality of opportunity seriously, then maybe they should consider the many ways they support businesses based on their size and revenue.

In the realm of fairness, that is a much better place for them to start.