Leopards Ate My Face

You speak to them of how they aren't an island. You speak to them of how even a recession-proof job is still subject to the rising costs felt by everyone. You speak to them of how these rising costs have over time reduced the actual value of what they've been paid, even with regular cost of living increases. You speak to them of how they have to work harder now for the same results. You speak to them of how much less stress having a good safety net provides, since a recession is not the only way one can fall on hard times. You speak to them of how a small decrease in take-home pay results in a much larger decrease in living expenses, resulting in a net gain.

You speak to them of how they need not be the sacrificial lamb, that they deserve to travel and learn and have a good life as well; and that their family should not have to give that up either to protect their health and well being.

You speak to them of how helping everyone is good for everyone, including themselves. The goal is to raise the standard of living across the board.

That, even though they looked ahead and made all the right decisions, they are still wrong and should shoulder the burden to supplement the lives of everyone else at the expense of their own families?

If you're a military contractor who gets to enjoy the benefits of a recession-resilient Pentagon budget despite the downturn in the overall economy, and your response to a civilian construction worker or an HVAC repair guy or a restaurant waiter out on the unemployment line is "Suck shit, asshole, you should have made the right decision to drone strike overseas daycare centers, like me", I won't say I'm surprised.

But when the wheel turns, and those angry voters say maybe we don't need USAID or the latest model F-35 or the VA, I'm not sure you get to be the first in line to complain, either.

Selfishness is labeled as such a horrible quality, yet so many perpetually online people only care about their own situation.

Selfishness is a state of nature, as you have varying limited exposure to other people, but you spend 100% of your time with yourself. It's something you have to learn to grow beyond.

But what I see online isn't selfishness nearly so much as it is tribalism. They form social niches and empathize with one another. That can be a source of strength when they recognize a communal source of aggrievement. But it can also be a source of weakness, when marketers and propagandists exploit a superstition or common gullibility. The era of Big Data has revolved around industrial manufacturing of consent and delusion.

That's not a consequence of any single individual's failure. It is a systematic psychological attack on communities at-large. It is a strategic effort to alienate people from one another, to weaken them, and then to consume them - devouring their accrued wealth, their free time, and their valuable human labor - for the profit of the industry sponsoring the deceptive content.

I will not let someone take that from me just because they want it without putting in the work.

If you see unemployment as a consequence of laziness, I suppose that makes sense.

But if you see unemployment as a consequence as a form of industrial lock-out, in which business conglomerates and cartels force down the price of labor by deliberately understaffing and overworking a fraction of the population...

This isn't a matter of someone taking from you because they want it. This is a matter of someone withholding something from you through violence, because they can extract more of your wealth in exchange.