Today I sat in class as my professor pulled out two Tiffany&Co. Crystal candle holders that are worth as much as approximately 3 months of work at my waitressing job (at the rate I work now). As I think about this, I realize that a quarter of the year that I spend working this part time job is worth as much as something my professor sticks burning wax in maybe a few times a year. What are we working for? Yes, I work so I can get a new car and so I can make ends meet and put food on the table for myself. All the while, I am putting in work to 5 classes so that I can get closer to my degree and therefore graduate to just work some more. While all of this is happening, I am paying money to be able to make money. Money as a beget for money. Huh. All for the ability to buy some friends two candle holders for their wedding worth more than a 19-year old’s part time job’s three-month salary? I am struggling with why. I want to push back on Marx because I was always taught that communism is a no, but when you really work through it, some aspects start to make sense.

There is nothing wrong with having nice things, there is nothing wrong with giving others nice things, and there is nothing wrong with wanting nice things. What is wrong is why. Why do we want nice things? I sound like the biggest hypocrite; I buy myself lots of nice things. I sometimes forget to ask myself why. “Well I want it, and I can get it” Well, if I get them because I want them, why is it that I want material things rather than the chance to help people in need. Is this seriously what capitalism has reduced humanity to? I’m also concerned because I feel as though I don’t have a big enough problem with that. Honestly I kind of gross myself out looking around my room seeing the name brand products hung up in my closet or covering my body. I am a product of a system that puts more value on showing off your means than it does giving others basic means to survive.

The inhumanity of many actions I believe can be explained by the by-standard effect. This effect is a social psychological phenomenon in which individuals do not help others with the assumption that somebody else already is. For instance, someone not calling 911 because there is a large crowd of people around an accident and they assume it has already been handled and that help is on the way. We know that everyone sees these starving and suffering humans on the screen, or in the papers, and we always assume that the next guy is going to be the one to help. We always assume someone is going to take care of it, but many never have the audacity to make a difference themselves. Thinking about it, how dare I say no to the retailers attempt to put an extra dollar on my bill to donate to a charity. Where do I get off saying no after justifying a 35$ purchase at the local Dick’s Sporting goods, or something of those sorts. Where do I justify my lack of generosity when it applies to humans I have never met-- it is as though we forget that they are still humans, too. That in and of itself is a little intimidating. Is this, my lack or charitable generosity, a result of capitalism or a result of cultural norms? Or is capitalism culturally normal and therefore there is a mix of both? Are humans just too self-interested? Are we always examining the bottom line? When we start putting a price tag on human life we lose the actual meaningful connection provided through real-life relationships. We forget that is could be us and we are simply blessed that it is not. If we started recognizing that more often, I believe that things would begin to change.

I have friends who get allowances per month. One specifically, 300$ per month, approximately 10 dollars a day. What would be one extra dollar a day donated to help those in need? If we are so high up in global wealth why don’t we do something? Myself, I buy typically 6 coffees a week, what if I was putting that money in the mail to send to a third world country? Do I value my coffee more than helping someone else? As a country, we are too busy saying we have earned it to recognize that we have also earned the ability to make a difference for others. Is capitalism’s competition effect so strong that we are willing to watch others suffer in order to launch ourselves forward and succeed? Would we rather have crystal candle holders than the ability to save numerous lives? I guess I opened my eyes, finally, to a perspective I never really wanted to see. Are we all like this, simply too blissfully ignorant? We ignore the pain of others because it makes it easier to avoid pain for ourselves. We create walls between cultures to justify not helping, we focus more on the separation of cultures than the uniting factor of simply all being human beings, with a direct right to live and prosper. The right to prosper, as I say that I feel relatively naive as I begin to recognize it is not that easy. Sometimes, people simply are given more opportunities for their preparations to meet.

I grew up hearing stories of my relatives going from rags to riches. Firstly, my great grandfather, my father’s, father’s father, who came to America not speaking a lick of English and made a name for himself. He was an Italian man ready to pursue the American Dream. He found his success in the railroad industry after cleaning up his English and taking hold of the opportunities in front of him. He filed his patent on January 4, 1923 for his invention he primarily defined as, an invention that eliminates the hand labor involved in railroad ballast cleaning. His invention, with the patent published July 6, 1926, saved railroads time, money, labor, and ballast. He earned it, and he left some of his success to his family and I still feel as though his success trickles into the life I currently live. As the famous greek proverb states, “Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” I believe that capitalism allows those metaphoric trees to be planted, and therefore enables society to grow great, we just need to recognize that we are not the only people in need of shade. On the flip side of that, I have my grandmother, the strongest woman I know, named Jane. Jane grew up very wealthy, with her dad owning a large lumber company. He owned a lot of land and ran a large scale, vastly successful business. That said, when Jane was applying to college, she separated herself from that money by listing her father’s occupation simply as a “lumberjack” she wanted her brain, not her wallet, to advance her in society… was she making a point that you can create your own life or is her disregarding her wealth her own way of pursuing wealth she can actually call her own? I wonder if she did this to metaphorically disregard the shade or if she understood that if she doesn’t take the shade, maybe someone else can. This is not something she talks about much, she is far too humble and would change the topic immediately. Though that is true, I am still left thinking, longing to understand where she felt her motivation for her actions was derived. Jane recognized that others need help too, and I believe she wanted to prove that with all her skills, she could help herself. That said, though others need a hand, I do not think that Marx’s ideas are the right approach. To take from some to give to others, I struggle a lot with that. For instance, I always wonder where my tax dollars are going, a college student who still gets a large amount of taxes pulled out, is anyone benefiting from those taxes that is in a better financial position than I? Also, I am benefitting from tax dollars from some who are in a worse position than I… so why are we taking from people? They should be able to choose and give, right? Are we able to have that much faith in humanity? Are market forces driving us into the ground or pushing us towards equilibrium?

Overall, in this ramble of thoughts one is left with the major internal argument: which, if any at all, positive rights are worth working towards in a society? While it would seem easy to go full blown libertarian capitalism, would humans be able to stomach not helping anyone? Here is where I wonder if taxes did not exist would people feel more obligated to help others so it isn’t the “I have done enough” mentality amongst humans as a whole. If we could choose where our taxes went, would we choose the destination to which they currently aid? Do market forces take the human out of the being, or might they have the ability to enhance it? The truth is I believe nobody knows, and I think that scares people into trusting others with their decisions. At the end of the day many cannot differentiate between beings and the bottom line, so we need to find a middle ground for everyone to have a chance.