NOTE: I don’t know who all reads these articles I produce, and I doubt many people get through them without giving up halfway because whatever I am writing doesn’t appease their short attention spans. However, for those who do, I just want to extend an appreciation towards you. If you like what I write and want me to continue to write more, then the best way to support me is by following one of my various social media pages and seeing when another article comes up. I also recommend you send me some monetary support to show your support and to help me dedicate myself to my writing more intensively. Unfortunately, many of those in my circle who “support” me do not understand the value of showing financial support on any level. I do implore you to consider it because right now, I have all the time in the world to write and I will only be able to continue with you direct support. If you ever decide to do so, I appreciate you well in advance.

---

So, unfortunately, being in between jobs again has me doom scrolling on various social media websites. And in that, I have become a victim to my own unawareness as I repost a meme from a X post with no thought behind it whatsoever, and the main reason I did so was because of it supports my distain for the future of our country, regardless if the post was factual or not. I am not the only one who tends to do this, and to feel shame about it even though the post wasn’t really correct would be ridiculous. Some people, however, love to bathe in that shame and will do anything to make other feel the same way, and some are very smart people and know exactly how to do it. It’s unfortunate how that is the case. But, it’s hard not to impress your feelings onto others, whether those feelings are negative or positive.

I sure that same person read some of that last paragraph and asked why would I even bring that up and what does it have to do with my title, and to that I say fuck you. This is my website I paid for, and I can make whatever title I want and whatever points I want to make under it. The main reason I brought it up was to signify how much distain I have for our current establishment. I was never a fan of Trump in 2016, he did a terrible job running the country, and made some moves that brought our country into an even further downward spiral than it was already in thanks to COVID. I could talk all day about tariff policies and border control and how we should handle it, but to be honest, the issues only really take place because of our current economic system on a global scale. Capitalism is the route of all the evil in the world (I will stand by this until my grave) and while it did a really good job in bringing innovation into our world and did wonders in incentivizing global research on many medical, technological, and scientific projects, it also did something else; it increased the divide between the rich and the poor in our world.

Lets just take a look at Elon Musk and Donald Trump as my prime examples. Both white men from rich families that used that wealth to bolster their children into a position the children used to put themselves into the White House. That is evident, and while $28k borrowed to build a business alongside his brother isn’t as much as a $1m dollar loan, both Elon and Trump had help from their rich family in one way or another in order to get themselves started and to build the empires they now own today. As someone who comes from a poor background and as someone who understands enough about capitalism in the years they were first building their wealth, it does take some talent and focus to increase that wealth and I will praise them for that.

However, there is a line I draw in building one’s wealth when it starts to impede on other’s abilities to progress in the same way you did. Due to inflation (which is a side affect of capitalism that many rich people like these two helped perpetuate), if I got a $28k loan, I would barely have enough to lease a building for my business for 6 months. And, unfortunately, the laws on wages haven’t had much of a shift due largely in part to the rich in politics not really paying enough attention to this issue and leaving it up to the states. Now, some states have done a great job of increasing wages, and while cost in those states for products has also risen, the percent of earn vs spent is well within a margin that is livable, while other states refuse to change the rate of pay to any degree and say (by way of lack of action) to those stuck in a position that pay minimum wage “You’re shit out of luck”. Which, any governmental system based on any degree of luck whatsoever is, in my opinion, disrespectful to humanity as a whole.

Which is my main issue with our current capitalist society. Capitalism was the system that was created well before the United States, but in all aspects of capitalism, some person is getting exploited for their labor, whether it’s slavery in the early days of USA to children digging for gold for our computer parts in our phones in the modern consumerist society. The truth is, it is a system that everyone, unless you were born in a river and raised as a monk in a monastery, is a participant of. And as long as you go to the doctor to get an X-Ray, or eat anything processed to some degree, it won’t stop until the supplies that fuel our economy runs out and everything collapses.

Understanding all this while eating Muddy Buddies, I see myself a a cog in the wheel and understand that I am an unwilling participant of the problem. I have a vegan friend who is so due to exploitation of the animals in the factories that make our burgers, but can escape the exploitation of the factory workers or service workers who made her food as she eats a vegan-friendly burger. Even our grass was sourced from a location that grows grass in patches and is shipped off to be sold to HOA’s or newly established communities, and the people who initial grew that grass are being exploited as well. The acceptance of this fact and willingness to enjoy life as much as possible is where most people stand on these issues; you can’t live with it, and you can’t live without it, so might as well make the most of it, right? So, then we continue to create problems within the fabric of our own societies and then find solutions for some of those problems, and the other problems become a staple of what life is all about. At the end of the day, it isn’t fair, right?

Well, to me, that attitude discounts everything that could be done to minimize the margin of unfairness we experience on a daily basis, and yet most Americans voted for Donald Trump, which shows that we (humanity as a whole) have no interest to minimalize that margin and will everything to make sure our individual selves can have a decent life, even if that means stepping on top of other people in order to get to our goals. I was like this for the first 10 years of my life, not paying attention to those around me and not letting myself enjoy really anything, thinking I needed to do whatever it takes to get into a position of wealth so I can be the reason why my family who raised me is out of poverty as well. However, after getting promotion after promotion, I eventually got fired again and found myself disoriented, knowing my goal wasn’t going to be fulfilled and no one was really helping me reach my goal anyways. And, why would they? I was overall an unbearable asshole, and even to those I helped I wasn’t pleasant to be around to the point that even if they could help me, they wouldn’t even consider reaching out.

After some time in therapy, I realized that the majority of the people around me in my adolescence did me a disservice in more ways than one, and once I became an adult, no matter how damaged I was (and still am), I was still responsible for my own actions. I do my best to donate small amounts to organizations I care about in very liminal ways, I help people around me without even exchanging my name, and I give advice where it’s welcome, but at the end of it all, I live in a society that breeds and perpetuates people just like me. If you have known me enough to be around when I have done damage, and still vote and support people like Donald and Elon, then I am given the impression that I shouldn’t try to change at all. That sexual harassment, exploiting position of power, racism, sexism, and classism are not only ok but are to be encouraged and perpetuated because that is life and it isn’t fair, right? I think the biggest difference between me and others is understanding and intent. I never intended to do wrong by people. In every situation were I did wrong, I was triggered in one way of another that eventually led to my actions. Whether that is stress, overstimulation, anxiety, or a combo of all three, my only intent was to enjoy life, help people enjoy theirs as much as I am able, and to get myself in a position to help my family in a meaningful way.

However, I truly don’t think that is the case for people like Donald and Elon. Maybe I am wrong, but they don’t come off to me as genuine people who care about the world around them but can’t get that through because of their own psychosis. They seem much more deliberate in their actions and when it does more harm than good, they don’t really care because it put them in a good position and that is all that matters to them. They probably were taught proper boundaries growing up, which is healthy but also separates yourself from those who deserve your support and empathy. It’s a delicate balance. And whether you are a business man working under an MLM trying to convince other people to be a business owner that unfortunately won’t amount to much because of how oversaturated that particular market is, or your someone who is on mental disability because you can’t handle the simple tasks of day to day life without wanting to kill yourself, finding that balance in your own life is very hard.

And, unfortunately, the more money you have, the easier it is to have that balance. You could become someone who is able to support your family for years to come, while also giving your employees a living wage and still make enough to have a nice house and extra money for your own personal ventures, while also being able to donate to charity and support the community around you, while also allowing boundaries that keeps you, your finances and your family safe. However, in my opinion, there is a stopping point where what you make and what you spend (and what you spend it on) is no longer a fact of boundaries that restrict you and more so a willingness to spend. And that limit is 100% based on the amount of money you decide not to spend on others, but on yourself. For instance, if I made $1m a year and spend 3/4 of that money on myself, I would consider myself a bad person, no questions asked. It doesn’t take more than $100k a year in the United States to live a moderate life, meaning a nice house you own, supporting children you can raise, and having extra income for yourself and your wants and needs (and that is without including debts you own to colleges or banks). Most people in that bracket also have some donations they pay to, and might even have time to volunteer. However, no one at that scale can make much of a difference to the global inequity we currently are dealing with.

However, lets say I still made $1m a year, decide to give myself the $100k allowance (maybe a small margin more depending on dependents I might have), and with the rest of that money was pure philanthropy and used to help fix major issues in income inequality, that is so much more impactful than me making that much but only attributing as much as someone who makes $100k a year. And, honestly, no individual needs more than $1m dollars. Period. The fact that we have two multimillionaires hoarding most of the wealth they accumulate (I don’t consider it earning anymore because they aren’t doing anything other than using the money they have to make more money) running The United States, one of the biggest superpowers in the modern world, shows that we aren’t looking to decrease that inequality at all.

Factually speaking, I have doubts that most of what Trump wants to accomplish will pass far enough to get implemented. What will get implemented will most likely have a negative affect long term, but there is no way to know for sure. However, you if you think 2 people who use more than a 4th of their income for themselves (which is still millions of dollars, which is unnecessary based on my metrics) care about any individual struggling to pay for gas and groceries, I would argue you are wrong. Now, if both of those two lived in a small condo like I do and live a very, VERY modest lifestyle and used the rest of their income to help the world, then they wouldn’t even need to be in the White House.

To back up my claim about what he wants to implement having a negative affect long term, I will name one policy he wants to enforce and give you a understanding, from how I see it, of how it will end up being bad; implementing tariffs. The obvious thing he wants to implement and while we all know that we will end up paying for it by higher prices from both imports and domestic products (I mentioned that in a previous article), it also has a convenient underlining affect; perpetuating racial inequality. Check these facts: 98% of all land in the United States is owned by someone who is white. and only 7.7% of white Americans live under the poverty line. That means, by default, white people have a better chance of dealing with the income inequality that minority groups do. By implementing policies that directly affect consumers, you increase the division of wealth between white people and all the other racial groups. That is what is the base of white privilege. So, even if these rich people loose all their money, the chance that the person that will take their place being another white person is much higher, because as we have already discussed and shown, the best way to get ahead in this country is to have a good financial backing from someone willing to support you financially. It’s hard to dismantle this system, but by supporting two white people implementing policies that make everything more expensive for everyone, you (and I am talking to the majority of the white Americans who voted for Trump) did so because you knew it wouldn’t affect you as much as it would other people, which shows your selfish resolve and for that I cannot forgive you.

The dilemma that I come to is this; is it truly wrong to limit an individual or companies abilities to make too much money (and by too much, like BlackRock levels), and it is wrong to limit specific consumer products worth on the market so that a $1m dollars doesn’t become worthless in 250 years, or should we just ride this wave of late-stage capitalism until it fall through the ground? I knew a girl who moved from Brazil looking for a better life, only to find that her life here in the USA wasn’t much better than it was in Brazil and moved back. I don’t want a full-communist country were the individual has no power whatsoever, because that doesn’t fix the problem of wealth inequality and classism as we currently experience it. But, and stay with me here, what if all basic food items and water had a global fixed price, anything other than that has a margin they can change under, no individual can make more than $1m, no company can have as much money as they currently do (no personal idea of how to change or adjust this tbh, because there are so many different companies and so many factors to consider), and any extra money of income earned by an individual or companies must be implemented in a philanthropic way that ensures that even those working in the grass fields growing commercial grass don’t get abused and overworked and can still make a moderate wage that earns them enough for a nice house and family with extra income to spare? Is something like that even possible, fundamentally speaking? And, if it is and the only people who keep that from happening are the rich and powerful (or those who support the current system because they want to be rich and powerful), isn’t that more wrong than one individual killing a CEO of a business that makes money denying healthcare to those who pay for it and need it?

At the end of it all, it is unfortunate that the solution can only be found in small, meniscal steps that still keep people at such a disparity within a capitalist society. I can understand that it is a necessary evil I must live with, even if I don’t like or support it. However, if you do support this system (and by support, I mean thing like voting in favor of this current power struggle and not against) while understanding the intricacies of exploitation (because, from where I see it, multimillionaires and multi-billion dollar corporations exploit more people than most 1st world country government do), then you, at your very core, have a general disrespect for your fellow human. Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day.