Below is the transcription of my audio memo from my drive to work –
I was talking to my wife about this over dinner. That we as a society like to throw away people and put them away. We’re uncomfortable with the uncomfortable.
What I was saying that brought this up was our default in society is non-existence. If you stop working within this machine of our system,
then you could end up homeless. And homelessness is not an option in this country. People would rather you go away than hold a sign on the corner of a street that they frequent. People would rather not see pain
not see suffering. They’d rather put it away for someone else to deal with, but there’s no someone else to deal with it. Our society prioritizes this image, and usually that image is to discard, to get rid of, to show face, you know? If I have debt, the government
would rather me pay off that debt as quickly as possible. And if I don’t, I will get in trouble and I could end up in jail or deeper in debt. And what happens when you’re deeper in debt, you’re basically forced into non-existence. Suicide, jail, homelessness,
but just out of sight. We also have this thing in the United States where it really is hard to get ahead just based on the systems that are present.
For example, you’re filing your FAFSA. You have to get everybody in your life who has the ability to support you financially, in theory, whether or not they do. But in theory, people who are supposedly supposed to be financially supportive have a stake in your financial perspective.
What I mean by this is, when you’re filing FAFSA, anyone who’s making money has to claim it. And when you do that, that determines how much of a financial burden you have, and therefore how much government funding they’re willing to give you. And so, if a family makes a little bit more,
then that student doesn’t get as much financial aid, or any. And when that happens, whether or not the parents actually do pay, or the partner ends up, like that they had the financial means to do that, just because based on the number, they have that means, the government won’t pay. So what do you end up doing? You end up having to take loans, or have to pull out a savings.
How disgusting is that? You can never really get ahead. How can you really get ahead? If every time you try, the government wants more, or this system wants more, this company, insurance company, service, whatever, wants more because you don’t qualify or whatever. Can you ever catch a break? So you always have to run. People are always running in our society.
And the moment you stop running, you lose all the momentum you have, or most of it. And if you don’t have that momentum already to begin with, you are struggling.
I’m not even talking about wealth accumulation of the top X percent of people in the world or in this country. I’m just talking about being able to sustainably enjoy your life. I think it is a very fair thing to say and to ask.
that someone could take three weeks of their life and not risk losing their job or everything that they’ve built financially come tumbling down. I don’t think that’s a hard thing to ask.
You don’t work for a week or even a day at certain jobs and you’re out. This is our lives, people. This isn’t some company, this isn’t some physical thing, but this is our life that we have ownership over.
And I guess that’s probably why we are so individualistic. It’s all about me and my family. I don’t really care about you, or at the expense of you, I’m gonna take care of my family. Because when you have to fight every single day,
sometimes harder than others, you’re gonna do whatever it takes. You’re gonna vote however it takes. Because the moment certain things or other people get in your way, you’re at risk. And I think the hotter our climate, our political climate gets,
the riskier that gets. And that’s a problem. Because imagine if we all defaulted to individualism in a society. The only thing I care about is myself.
then we’re going to be in big trouble. We were meant to be each other’s brother’s keeper, right? We’re supposed to be our brother’s keeper. So to look out for each other. And I believe in a world where our systems aren’t built in such a way where you have to
you know, fight to maintain, I think it would be a different story. I think we’d all watch out for each other if we knew we were safe. So I don’t fault anyone for having that individualistic mindset. It’s just not ideal. And shouldn’t be, you know?
The ideal is for us to watch out for each other and take care of each other.