Fair



The family I grew up in was not rich but we were comfortable. We lived the middle class dream. Dad had a stable factory job, mom worked at home, they had a reasonable mortgage, two cars, two sons, a daughter, a cat, and a dog; we couldn’t get more average American.  But today while more Americans are working than ever before, they depend on Snap, WIC, SSI, and subsidized healthcare just to get by; while the CEO’s and businesses Americans work for make record salaries and ever higher corporate profits.

What’s wrong with this picture?

I have nothing against businesses and corporations making a profit; hell, if they don’t then we’d all be up shit creek. The question I ask is what is fair? Several years back I worked out a business plan for a technology business. Within that plan I had worked out how the business wouldn’t be just a trickle down compensation for hourly paid the employees. Instead the vested employees or partners would share in the profit making and future of the business. I felt this was a fair way to keep the workers invested in the business by giving them a share of the dream.

The problem was banks and other investors laughed me out of the room when I presented my plan. It seems of your plan doesn’t turn out pure profit; no one wants to bother investing. I try to think of things in the long term, the old fashioned five or ten year plan for creating a profitable sable business. Maybe I’m out of step? Or maybe I’m just more optimistic and less paranoid. What happened to dreaming? Maybe I’m a relic of a by-gone era, watching Star Trek TOS and believing we can solve the problems of the universe with compassion, understanding, and our wits.

We seem so ready to give up on the American dream. If I had kept this attitude I would have never finished college, completed graduate school, or wrote this post. And I’m the one with anxiety issues. Let’s not give up or setting for empty promises by allowing hate and division to rule our thoughts. I maybe broke, but I still have the freedom to dream of a better future. Let’s be fair with one another.

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