I am very lucky…

↑ source: Too Much ↑

I’m not struggling to to stay a few steps behind. I’m not saddled with multiple kinds of debt. I’m not saddled with any debt at all. I have savings; For retirement and for whatever adventures that may come along. My income has increased throughout my professional career. Significantly. Without working constantly. Or even consistently. All without a college education. Just hard work (and maybe a bit of a right mind). So that I would be ready when luck came along.

Most people haven’t been as fortunate. Lady luck doesn’t get out like she used to. For a good 30 years now, hard work isn’t always enough. The people at the top of the wealth ladder have continually worked, directly and indirectly, to stack the deck in their favor.

While I’m not on those top few rungs, I’m not meandering in the middle either. Or suffering down below.

Given that position, what is my responsibility?

The easy answer is: Vote.
The hard question is: For who?

Politicians, of every affiliation, have repeatedly shown little interest in trying to fix the problem. When the public eventually forces concern, they are rarely willing to risk their own participation in a broken system to create real change (see healthcare).

Maybe someday voting will amount to more. For now, it’s a minor means of protest.

Which I increasingly feel is fine. You know the old saying about how, in a Democracy, “We get the government we deserve”?

I believe that’s true.

Our government is a reflection of who we are. It is irresponsible and self absorbed. So are we. Our politicians talk big about the problems we face, but are unwilling to change much in their lives to solve them. So do we.

Given that position, my responsibility is to be more responsable.

If you take a few wide steps back and look at all of the assorted messes we’ve created over the last few decades, there’s at least one recurring theme: The devaluing of value.

The rate at which capital has become a means to collect more capital, rather than a medium of exchange, has consistently been “Up and to the right”.

More has become a substitute for value.

These days, the process is:
I want something > I can afford it > I’ll get it.

In a society that is constantly telling us to want, the logical conclusion is to push for a position where you can always afford it.

Typically, by the time the absurdity of the situation is acknowledged, the tail is so far down the snakes throat that it may be impossible to pull it out. Swallowing more seems like a perfectly sensible solution.

The process should be:
I want something > I can afford it > Is it a good value? > No it isn’t > I won’t get it.

Anytime there isn’t a check on value, the system falls apart–Below you. It wasn’t wealthy people taking mortgages on overvalued homes for a to-good-to-be-true investment and tax break that suffered the most when the housing market collapsed. It was the middle class below them. When poor folks buy absurdly cheap clothes from Walmart they aren’t suffering directly. It’s the 13 year old Chinese girl making those socks that bears the brunt.

…I could go on. The list of examples is depressingly long. It’s a mostly obvious list. Even if you’ve only been partially paying attention, you probably already know some parts of it. You’ve probably already made up your mind about wether any of the items have merit. If you’re in the “every man for himself” camp, you probably aren’t reading this.

I won’t bore the rest of you with stories of how shit runs downhill.

Here’s something harder for me to wrap my head around…

Value is deeply personal. And deeply social.
It’s highly fluid. Highly relative to individuals and their circumstance.

One person may look at minimalist abstract painting and feel nothing at all (or worse, boredom). Another person may see the same painting and feel wonderful, inexpressible emotion.

A white kid in a small American town may grow up thinking black folks are the cause of most of her town’s problems. Not because she’s spent any time thinking about it… It’s just what the people around her have always said. When she goes away to college, where she’s around people that don’t think that way, her values may change.

This nebulous nature of value is exactly why it’s important to be more conscientious of it.

It’s irresponsible to assume that the things everyone is doing are valuable simply because everyone is doing them; Because it’s the way things have always been done; Because it causes a problem to fade into the background for awhile; Even because what is being done is personally enjoyable.

Those may sound obvious. Yet the human condition can be defined in part by our continual willingness to fool ourselves. Everyone I know, myself included, has been guilty of justifying some manor of injustice at one point or another.

It is responsible to be continually considerate of what is valuable to me and the people around me. It’s my responsibility to continually act on what I’ve learned. By re-adjusting my values towards something more considered, or growing them stronger through a consistent application to all of the aspects of my life.

Given that foundation, a lot of the littler things may start to work themselves out. And even if those things remain broken, I can comfortably say that I’m truly trying.

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Filed under: trickle down