It is pretty easy to imagine and believe there is some kind of global cabal meeting in the shadows, making plans about how they are going to take even more control from the people to pad their own interests. It is easy to visualize because at the surface level, that is what we see, where wealth and power increasingly pools to where it already sits, while average people are finding themselves in increasingly difficult positions.
However, it probably isn't true.
Yes, it is true that wealth is attracted to wealth and as such, the wealthy on average will get wealthier, and that means that the poor will get relatively poorer. And, because the poor have very little say over what happens to us, then we have to create a coherent story as to why life just sucks. Having a common enemy, an all-powerful adversary, probably makes us feel better about ourselves.
But, most likely, rather than a group of people in a clandestine meeting in the underground of a castle, the conversation isn't held face to face. Rather, there is no direct collusion or agreement at all for the most part and instead, just human behaviour driven by incentive and circumstance. We are pretty predictable under certain conditions, and we will normally move in ways that we believe are advantageous to us. It doesn't matter much if we are acting independently or making decisions for a group like a corporation, we are going to move to where we think we can do the best.
Have you ever watched a game of pee-wee soccer and noticed how they all chase the ball around the pitch? This is because they believe it is in their best interest to do so. Of course, as they age and learn strategy, they realize that it is better to have one or two places on the ball, and the others looking to support in defence or offense, waiting for and making opportunities. The dynamics of the game mean that working together and spreading out, rather than individuals chasing the one target, makes more sense.
This is actually quite the same if we were to think about the betterment of humanity as a whole, but that is not what we are interested in when we slice ourselves up into factions and interest groups. However, there are still rules in play. Piggybacking on the analogy above, it is like a pee-wee team playing against the world champions - there is no real contest. Not only that, those with the knowledge and skills, can pass the ball around the field and even give the other side the illusion of chance, and be at no risk at all.
Why I bring this up today is because of an article I read about a study which highlighted something that I have been talking about for a few years already.
The title is enough for the purpose of this article, but essentially, isn't it obvious? But, it is more than the obvious situation that it is more expensive to live alone that I am thinking about here and instead I am looking at it from the current culture and that pesky human nature I was talking about. People align to what they think is best for them, and businesses align to make profits. Ultimately, if it is more expensive to live alone, that means that corporations are going to drive people to live alone, because that is what helps them maximize their profits. There is no cabal required, just the rule to maximize wealth is enough.
As a result, corporate activities will align to create conditions that are best suited to increase their earnings and wealth models. This doesn't just include what they produce or offer as a business, but also how they lobby the rule-makers to stack deck, and create an uneven playing field so they can better control the flow of the game. Just like those little kids playing against the championship team, we are on the field, but we don't have any hope of winning, because we don't understand enough, we don't have the skills, and we aren't able to align our own actions with the rest of the team to pose a threat.
We act as individuals.
And just like that study looked at - it costs to be alone.
Poverty due to poor resource distribution has always existed in the more modern world, which is why the poor tend to clump together more, with more people under one roof, more children to take care of tasks and in old age, and more community to help each other. However, this model has been replaced by individualism, where the culture is about buying services, rather than services through personal relationships. This puts a retail price on everything, from food prep to babysitting and old age care - everyone has to pay, because there is no community to share the burden of action.
Being able to pay has its benefits of freedom of choice to a certain degree, but besides the price, there is also the control of the market. Just because we think we have made a choice, it doesn't mean that we were uninfluenced or not under duress when we made it.
In another article headline:
Some American women are getting elective surgical procedures to render themselves infertile because Donald Trump won the election. Young women who have chosen to make the radical move said they fear a reproductive rights crackdown under a second Trump administration. A number of women, including an OnlyFans model, opened up about their decision to Newsweek. They said they were turning to invasive, irreversible medical procedures to ensure their reproductive freedom remains untrodden upon.
While I put very little faith in the representative nature of these people mentioned, I use it as an example to consider about whether they are making the decision themselves, or if they have been influenced. Just consider the the last line,
ensure their reproductive freedom remains untrodden upon.
They haven't been trodden on, they have been trampled by a self-imposed herd of buffalo. They have made the decision in response to the playing field they think they have, in what they believe is their best interest, without actually having too much evidence as to what the rules actually are for the game. What may be relatively immature people making decisions that will affect the rest of their life in very profound ways, they might come to regret it. It is their body and their choice though.
I wanted these couple of stories to highlight how we align ourself to conditions as individuals, even if it isn't in our best interest to do so. We make what may be considered rash decisions, without considering what our long-term goals might be, or how our mind or the conditions could change over time. We chase the ball around the field, because we don't have the knowledge and skills to play the game, read the play, and be in the right place at the right time.
We often feel like the world is conspiring against us, because it is. It isn't the world per se, instead it is the set of conditions that drive behaviors of us as individuals and of others. Some people and groups are going to be far better suited to to take advantage of one set of conditions of another, and the longer they are able to maintain power, the more they will align other conditions to their favour also. At some point, no matter what they do on the field, the lead of those in the know, is unassailable.
The only way to narrow the gap,
is to change the rules of the game.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
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