the.com/square deal
Fairness marketed as a policy — everyone gets the same slice, not the biggest one
means An arrangement or transaction that treats everyone involved honestly and equitably, with no one cheated or given unfair advantage.
from Square has meant 'honest' or 'fair' since at least the 16th century, likely drawn from the carpenter's square — a tool that proves a corner is true, not warped or cheated. 'Square deal' itself took off as political shorthand in the early 1900s, most famously as the name of a U.S. president's domestic policy promising fair treatment to ordinary citizens against the power of big business. The card-table image helps too: a 'deal' dealt square, without a thumb on the deck.
- coined by
- Theodore Roosevelt, early 1900s
- core idea
- equal treatment for labor, business, and consumers
- not
- a good deal, just an honest one
- legacy
- ancestor of the New Deal's name