rich but sick

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“America, fundamentally, is an incredibly rich country with a sick society.”

Noah Smith

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“The primary use of ‘misinformation’ is not to change the beliefs of other people at all. Instead, the vast majority of misinformation is offered as a service for people to maintain their beliefs in face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”

Charlie Warzel

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Let me begin by saying well I feel incredibly fortunate with regard to my current financial situation. That said. Throughout the years I’ve had more than my share of sleepless nights worrying about money. What would happen if my car broke down the next day. How would I pay rent two months from now or even could I afford to buy the book that may help me professionally. Now. Financial worries are real. but they also take on a disproportionate size in our minds. This isn’t to suggest that financial worries should be diminished in any way, it’s just that in all the worries that we tend to face day to day the weight of a financial worry is significantly heavier than many of the other burdens.

I begin there because I have spoken with hundreds, if not thousands, of people across the United States as well as Europe and I’ve heard about financial worries and financial burdens. The reality is that burden weight is weighed solely by the individual bearing the burden. What I mean by that is that, objectively, you could look at one individual in one situation versus another individual in another situation and clearly see that one is facing significantly different financial worry than the other. The problem is that financial worries are subjective to individual context.

Which leads me to rich but sick.

The United States is an incredibly rich and wealthy country. Even our low-income people live healthier and more robust lives than their counterparts in almost every country in the world. The overall wealth of the country is almost astounding. The amount of luxuries and ‘wants met’ versus ‘needs met’ in almost every home in the United States is the envy of the world. It almost makes you think that it’s become far too easy to believe that what you have is what you deserve. This isn’t to say that there aren’t real financial worries and in fact for such a wealthy country we seem to avoid some of the easier solutions to ease some of the more prevalent financial worries. Accessible affordable child care. Expanded Medicare, or even a Medicare-for-all option for the total population (anyone ever wonder how good affordable healthcare would be now if Republican governors had embraced it from day one?). Affordable education not just to colleges, but trade schools. These are simple programs proven to be extremely effective across the world as well as proven by the United States during the pandemic to ease some of the financial worries and allow each individual to maximize their potential by shedding some of those worries. Regardless. There obviously will be people who are struggling financially day to day if not month to month, but America is an incredibly rich country. So, what is the general feeling of malaise the citizenry feels? Maybe its, well, we are rich but have a sick society.

Which leads me to who, and what, is making us sick.

Let me begin with the oil companies, the banks, the tech companies, and the big businesses. Simplistically most of them are selling out our future for present profits (and power). This isn’t to say they do not offer some value, just that they tend to be short term focused versus long term focused. Most of them are focused on making money and gaining advantage any way they can, take shortcuts, and choose quick fixes over long term societal good. Their sole focus on short term and quick bucks means they have less interest in building communities, i.e., their responsibilities of ‘in and of society.’ They shrug off societal/community responsibilities and accountability under the guise of profitability. This becomes even more important as other common sensemaking institutions falter. Church decline, decline in news trust, decline in trust in government, even decline in trust of doctors. If society cannot trust anyone, or anything, it will inevitably get sick. Rich, but sick.

Which leads me societal unhealthiness.

The combination of general wealth tainted by some extreme inequalities and the inability to apply some fairly common-sense solutions creates an unhealthy society. The basic asymmetry creates an imbalance which makes everyone a bit sea sick.  Worse, it creates some cynicism (which is corrosive to trust). Even worse, hopefulness is then seen as naive. If you ARE actually rich, you hold on to power with ragged claws. If you don’t FEEL rich (even though you do have some wealth), you relentlessly try and bring down those in power you blame for that feeling. Both of those things create a sicker society. Look. All I know is that hope is risky; you can lose, and you often do, but history shows that if you try, sometimes you win and that hope can be a cure for societal sickness. Ponder.