Gold Spoons For Plastic People
Let me tell you a little story. There was once a political leader who, like any self-respecting demagogue promised people their future was so bright they’d be eating with gold spoons. He didn’t lie. There were gold spoons indeed, but only in the mouths of his family and friends. The rest had to settle for plastic since their lives and livelihoods were mostly treated disposable. Just like that plastic cutlery, they were destined for the bins. Mind you, the problem is that microplastic has got even in our bodies and food. We’re no longer that biblical salt of the earth. We poisoned it and sent down a path of self-destruction.
The Big Lie we were sold was so intoxicating because it was necessary. A country on the brink of war, its courage boosted by assumed future benefits of the risk everyone was going to take. Had they known it was mostly smoke and mirrors for pawns in someone else’s game, they would have fled the scene on time. What many got instead was endless reburials because their remains were never recovered in entirety, leaving their families desperate and devastated. They were cheated. They were robbed and whole generation of young people was gambled away for nothing. For there was nothing to gain for most of them.
We rubbed the lamp and the cat got out of the bag. Instead of purring, it bit us in the ass. That would be a perfect, although oversimplified summary of the last 30 years in my country. The pinnacle of this political absurdistan was an announcement about financial support by the local authorities to help people butress the burden of inflation and cost of living.
Initially enthusiastically welcomed, it turned into a colossal slap in the face of the unemployed when it was uncovered that those with a job would granted a sum considerably bigger than those without a regular paycheck. It’s insulting to presume that those in gig economy don’t need more support in times where even employed people need a side gig to provide their families with basic necessities. When you’re window shopping, every day is Black Friday.
Until the fall of the Eastern Bloc and the Berlin Wall, you could always argue about pros and cons of each bloc: there was a certain balance, especially due to the Cold War. There was tension and envy. To the average people in the East, consumerism was the embodiment of freedom. Capitalist economy is based on the constant flow of money through fashion and technology that keep dishing out new trends to nourish your belief a designer pricetag equals the value of your identity. After the Wall fell, Francis Fukuyama announced the end of history. It was actually rather the beginning of an all-encompassing environmental, political and financial disaster.
What does freedom mean if you can’t afford a reasonably comfortable living for yourself or your family? It’s no surprise families are getting increasingly smaller. Having a child has become a luxury. It’s the new Birkin bag, just without a waiting list. And the timing has changed. Young people try to build a career before venturing into family planning.
In an economy that’s as unstable as the ground in earthquake-ravaged Turkey, the best time to do it is never. That’s why the support system is so biased. In order to boost population growth, some countries offer tax relief to families with more children. It’s almost like an icentive for child-farming in Victorian England. In other words, being single is the most expensive lifestyle. As if not getting any wasn’t tragic enough in the first place.
If the point of this financial Band-Aid for the unemployed is supposed to make them try harder to get a job I doubt it will do the trick. Worse, the larger sum is meant for the private sector. Underpaid staff in sectors like education are ineligible. And those are people who teach your children how to read and write.
Their contribution is underestimated and they can be molested or pushed into resignation by their students or administration that’s supposed to protect them. Egyptian pyramids stood the test of time because they were built from the ground upwards. It’s those layers that require the biggest support because they carry the rest of the building. The same is true of society. The fragile parts can’t be elevated without help. And this certainly isn’t the proper way to do it.
The way into hell is paved with good intentions, so the saying goes. Without long-term strategies it will be impossible to create a support system that we will be able to rely on in case we need to, no matter your financial or marital status. That’s the whole point of living in a community. However, the phenomenon of gated communities across the US has spawned a parallel world functioning as one of those fictional states with their own standards and rules. My favourite example was the video where Ellen DeGeneres talked about the woes or Covid isolation, while in the background you could see a gardener working outside her living room.
The elites pretend to be philantropists for donating crumbs of their immense wealth to various causes. Max Bunker’s legendary hero Superciuk is the embodiment of this twisted value system where the poor eat leftovers of the loaf. He’s a janitor who steals from the underprivileged to punish them for their unhealthy habits and rewards the rich for their tidiness.
We live in a real-life recreation of Bunker’s phantasy. The middle ground is lost, along with the middle class. We are left to cope with the consequences, a brunt of those excpecting that boost to their hustle. Maybe several hustles make a livelihood? I don’t know. But the time where average-income people didn’t need them is gone. Do yourself a favor and forget about those gold spoons. What truly matters is the purpose.
