Who Can Afford to Live?

This paper is written from a much more personal perspective than most of my musings. The points here should be no less important for that, but I feel it prudent to inform the reader before continuing. Perhaps, this paper could be seen as an airing of frustration from the writer, but one that might resonate with readers in similar straits. Pardon the indignation.

Date of writting was roughly December, 2022

Life is not fair.

A cliche spoken by parents to children since the dawn of progeny. Perhaps in different terms, and to different degrees no doubt, but the message has always been clear. Despite how we toil and sow, the world will tear you down and spoil your stores without any care for justice or mercy. The only way to survive such a chaotic life is to prepare for as many eventualities as you can foresee. One must insure themselves against chaos. A concept we in the 21st century have taken quite literally, putting the fruits of that toiling into the hands of another who will sure up our defense against chaos. But life is not fair, and no amount of “insurance” or planning can save us from the end.

The ability to forecast the future is one that separates success from failure, and often in our natural history, life from death. Storing up for the winter provides an escape from starvation to the astute farmer, and failure to do so causes death in the slacker, or so we are told. It makes perfect, microcosmic sense when scripted in a children's book; sacrifice now so you do not suffer later. It is such an important lesson for children to learn because it is a sure mark of maturity and future success. We delay gratification so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labor when it is time to reap them. Those who cannot or will not submit to this logic find themselves bereft of hope, homeless, even dead. So we toil in the “fields” of post-modern society, storing up 401Ks, IRAs, and even more daring investments if we have the capital. At least, that’s what we are supposed to do. We store that metaphorical wheat from the harvest in our cellars, to live off of it when the winter of life sets in. Simple as that. Plan ahead, scrimp and save, and work your ass off while your young so you won’t be a burden when you’re old.

The children’s stories often seem to exclude the landowner or ruler in their whimsical tales of squirrels burying nuts for the winter. There is never a bigger, stronger, richer squirrel that demands a piece of every acorn, often before it is even stored. Likewise, there is never a vast army of drone-like working squirrels that snatch up every nut before the lone rodent can catch his quarry. An army with enough extra acorns to pay off the biggest, strongest squirrel, and you too can have a share of the harvest, if you join them. If one wishes to carve out their own destiny, to merely have enough for themselves and a family, they have to generate degrees of magnitude more capital than a working drone. It is not enough to make the same amount, because that big squirrel will have his share, at the point of violence if necessary. So the little squirrel must harvest twice as much as he truly needs, only by himself, and in competition with the massive group that has a headstart already. Toil and sow, little squirrel. You will never be able to take enough to feed yourself and the big squirrel, much less a family. Join the group or die.

No analogy is perfect, and there are plenty of success stories that go against the current paradigm, but the American dream that people have fought and died for seems to be fading with each passing generation.

Capitalism has been the biggest catalyst for economic progress the world has yet seen. In combination with, and complimenting greatly, the industrial and technological revolutions of recent years, capitalism has enabled a life for westerners in which avoiding suffering is no longer our chiefest concern. And reaping its benefits in America is still easy as ever, if you are willing to conform. Sure, you may not be able to get by as an artist, or even a low skilled laborer, but if you plan it right you will fit snugly into the unbroken chain, reaping the benefits of a life insured against chaos. The steps are simple enough:

1. Have two parents

2. Graduate Highschool

3. Get a degree or technical certification in a STEM field

4. Start working and saving as early as possible

5. Work for most of your life; invest wisely and cautiously

6. Retire without burdening society

If one follows these steps without shipwrecking their progress via addictions, unexpected pregnancy, or a disease or cancer, then that person can expect a normal, suffering free life. There might even be room to have a family if enough money comes in. This path even allows for quaint pleasures like casual hobbies, regular exercise, and weekend binge drinking. As long as you tow the line and remain employed, you can die at around ninety years old, having lived a relatively worry-free life.

In times past, the life just described was attainable by all but the most slovenly of unskilled workers, excepting, of course, a shorter lifespan. For as much as a tired point it may be, the dollar went further in our grandparent’s day, and the post-modern American does not get as much for their time as those that came before. Sure, many things are cheaper, and it has never been easier to live in relative comfort, but if one has any higher aspirations in life, they had better come from family money or be extremely lucky. Many in society eschew this notion as something a slacker would say, and perhaps in some cases that is true, but oftentimes these objections come from the same people that bemoan tax burdens and inflation in the same breath. It is indeed harder to achieve the standard life track in 2022, with the crushing burden of taxes that cut you off at the knees as soon as you start to achieve something resembling success. It is indeed harder when massive, multinational corporations that collude with our very government, monopolize nearly every retail venture, with a ravenous eye set on the service industry. It is indeed harder when that very insurance we all struggle for is strangling aspiring entrepreneurs with the barest minimum being given for their hard-paid premiums. Labor is exported to slave states, material is imported from the burgeoning East that stands ready to overtake the oblivious West that beats its most promising children into mindless, corporate drones.

Perhaps, this is just the way of things. Perhaps we are merely the peasant class of the new order. For however free the west might be, the landowners and nobles still exist, and they still exact their toll. It can be difficult to see any other truth in life when your toiling amounts to nothing, and those self righteous loudmouths who wield power over us all sit in mocking sympathy as they slurp up more power like leeches. Their gift of socialized medicine is a pittance to prevent discontent, even as they bleed the now satiated populous dry. All their espoused caring for the common man are but lies to satiate the mob that might threaten their power.

But blackpills are poison, and all we can do is struggle on, and try to carve out our own future as best we can. Times change, and maybe we are not done evolving as a people. God willing, those that care can carve up a big enough piece to start a family, and perpetuate the great struggle once again. God willing.