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Other People's Money
Dec. 8th, 2013 11:03 amGentle Readers,
I posted something on my facebook the other day talking about stagnated wages and gov't spending and minimum wage and such. The (very few) people on my friends list there who are rabidly right wing started ranting about the usual things, mostly about how we give the government too much money because "socialism" and if only they reduced taxes we'd be in utopia. On one the comments he made was "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." which was clearly a quote from some clever person.
The more I think about it, the more I am forced to acknowledge that he is correct. The thing is (and I think the thing he doesn't really consider) is the fact that this is true for capitalism too. No matter what, you eventually have to spend your own resources, or find a way to get blood from the stone. And that's part of what I want to talk about.
There have been a few little information points that have added up to this. The biggest was an <anhref=http://skud.dreamwidth.org/61567.html>excellent post from Skud which talked about, more than anything else, ethical living (although I don't know if that was the intent). I like the ideas about resilience and the ability to survive a crisis (be it Job Loss or Zombie Attack). I like the idea of reducing impact and reducing resources. Which got me thinking about why this was important to me. In some ways it's about living more frugally but that's not just it. Even as vigilant as I try to be about keeping out of our consumptive culture, it's hard not to get pulled in. The idea of having a set of rules for how you want to limit your consumption seems like a good rule for dealing with this.
Without a framework, you have nothing to support you and you fall back on the defaults.
So, there's that. Then there was Rick Mercer's rant about Rob Ford's popularity. The money line was "These are people who would vote for a hamster if it would reduce their taxes by a dollar". This got coupled with an article about why people who can't really afford it still buy luxury goods (which I can't find the link for) but the Cracked article about habits you get from being poor talks about it as well (it's just not as well articulated as the lost article). Basically: "If you never have much money, if you always have debt, you have no faith that you will ever have more money than you have right now. If that's the case, what does it matter how you spend your money." People become so desperate for that little bit more they will throw in with anyone who will help them get it, regardless of what that costs them down the road.
I know I'm speaking from a position of privilege. I didn't grow up poor. I don't really get it, but it seems plausible as a reason for why people appear to me to be voting against their self interest.
We also have the set of people who, while not poor, are still seeing their fortunes getting worse, are angry and frustrated that things are getting more expensive (or companies cheat and reduce the amount of content in their packaging), especially when their income has been stagnant or even been clawed back. So, again there is the opportunity to get things going into the black again.
So this takes us back to other people's money. In order to get it we need to make them believe that it's not worth keeping. We need them to believe that there's no point in saving it, it's better to spend it now. And really, in many ways, that is true. Even with inflation as low as it is, given that real wages are not keeping up with it your money will never have as much buying power as it does now. In addition we convince them the to use other people's money themselves via credit (although it's just another way of getting them to pay more money).
Which takes me back to the framework. I'm not going to be able to stop buying things, but I can choose (thanks to my privileged) to buy things that are durable and repairable. I can learn how to take care of the things that I buy so that they last longer and stay in good shape. I can reduce my reliance on processed things and learn how to make things for myself.
Most important, I need to make sure that I remember that these are my choices. Other people have their reasons for making their choices and those reasons are different than mine which leads their making different choices. I need to respect their autonomy even if it means that they are making choices that are detrimental to me (like voting for Larry O'Brian). I'm sure they feel the same when I vote for the "Tax and Spend Liberals" and may not be as charitable.
I posted something on my facebook the other day talking about stagnated wages and gov't spending and minimum wage and such. The (very few) people on my friends list there who are rabidly right wing started ranting about the usual things, mostly about how we give the government too much money because "socialism" and if only they reduced taxes we'd be in utopia. On one the comments he made was "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." which was clearly a quote from some clever person.
The more I think about it, the more I am forced to acknowledge that he is correct. The thing is (and I think the thing he doesn't really consider) is the fact that this is true for capitalism too. No matter what, you eventually have to spend your own resources, or find a way to get blood from the stone. And that's part of what I want to talk about.
There have been a few little information points that have added up to this. The biggest was an <anhref=http://skud.dreamwidth.org/61567.html>excellent post from Skud which talked about, more than anything else, ethical living (although I don't know if that was the intent). I like the ideas about resilience and the ability to survive a crisis (be it Job Loss or Zombie Attack). I like the idea of reducing impact and reducing resources. Which got me thinking about why this was important to me. In some ways it's about living more frugally but that's not just it. Even as vigilant as I try to be about keeping out of our consumptive culture, it's hard not to get pulled in. The idea of having a set of rules for how you want to limit your consumption seems like a good rule for dealing with this.
Without a framework, you have nothing to support you and you fall back on the defaults.
So, there's that. Then there was Rick Mercer's rant about Rob Ford's popularity. The money line was "These are people who would vote for a hamster if it would reduce their taxes by a dollar". This got coupled with an article about why people who can't really afford it still buy luxury goods (which I can't find the link for) but the Cracked article about habits you get from being poor talks about it as well (it's just not as well articulated as the lost article). Basically: "If you never have much money, if you always have debt, you have no faith that you will ever have more money than you have right now. If that's the case, what does it matter how you spend your money." People become so desperate for that little bit more they will throw in with anyone who will help them get it, regardless of what that costs them down the road.
I know I'm speaking from a position of privilege. I didn't grow up poor. I don't really get it, but it seems plausible as a reason for why people appear to me to be voting against their self interest.
We also have the set of people who, while not poor, are still seeing their fortunes getting worse, are angry and frustrated that things are getting more expensive (or companies cheat and reduce the amount of content in their packaging), especially when their income has been stagnant or even been clawed back. So, again there is the opportunity to get things going into the black again.
So this takes us back to other people's money. In order to get it we need to make them believe that it's not worth keeping. We need them to believe that there's no point in saving it, it's better to spend it now. And really, in many ways, that is true. Even with inflation as low as it is, given that real wages are not keeping up with it your money will never have as much buying power as it does now. In addition we convince them the to use other people's money themselves via credit (although it's just another way of getting them to pay more money).
Which takes me back to the framework. I'm not going to be able to stop buying things, but I can choose (thanks to my privileged) to buy things that are durable and repairable. I can learn how to take care of the things that I buy so that they last longer and stay in good shape. I can reduce my reliance on processed things and learn how to make things for myself.
Most important, I need to make sure that I remember that these are my choices. Other people have their reasons for making their choices and those reasons are different than mine which leads their making different choices. I need to respect their autonomy even if it means that they are making choices that are detrimental to me (like voting for Larry O'Brian). I'm sure they feel the same when I vote for the "Tax and Spend Liberals" and may not be as charitable.
