I’ve been observing what’s going on in society lately and I keep thinking ‘Who Asked For This?’
To be fair, I never asked for anything society related as far back as I can remember, so maybe this is nothing new. I certainly don’t remember asking to be here, yet here I am in this system.

The real question is do/did we ever really have a choice? This is tricky, because oftentimes we tell ourselves we do, but is that really true?

For example, when someone says you have freedom because you can quit the job you hate and go work somewhere else. I always wonder about the people who say this. Have they actually done this? Or are they just trolling? Are they so spectacular in some way that they can easily move and/or find these truly different, better jobs? Maybe they just have the ‘right’ kind of interests or abilities in this type of society we are living in.

Now, I am pretty fortunate. If I left my current job I would be able to support myself for quite a while and yet I don’t agree with the above statement. I would run out of money and faster than ever before, because we are in inflationary times. Figures, this is what countless years of saving money and being responsible adds up to. That’s not freedom. I’m not saying pure freedom would be desirable, but of course I wouldn’t know as I’ve never had that. There’s so many assumptions in the ‘go get a better job statement’. You’re assuming there is a better job out there, that it’s easy to travel to, that it’s possible to get that job, that they are actually hiring and that it pays a living wage (which we know is becoming less and less common), etc. Another big assumption is that everyone has the means to do that. Many are living paycheck to paycheck, how are they supposed to do that?

So technically, I have ‘done’ this. 20 years ago (damn, time flies), I had a job and while I didn’t hate it, I didn’t really like it either. It was OK. Maybe that’s a me problem. I have an issue fitting into the slots available for some reason. But I realized that if I stayed in that job, I’d probably struggle financially for the rest of my life given I was living in one of the most expensive places in the US. I didn’t lie to myself though. I was honest about why I was changing jobs and it wasn’t because I felt free. It was because I felt more trapped than ever and couldn’t see a way out otherwise. Yes, this choice ended up giving me a lot more freedom down the road, but I couldn’t have known that back then. Another thing I want to point out is that my previous job required a college degree and I don’t believe that it was even remotely necessary to actually do the job. So there I was with a degree (in Accounting), but starting at 34k in New York. And it wasn’t upstate NY.

What I’m really wondering is: why is it like this? And: does it really have to be like this? It’s no secret that we are living in a hierarchy. And in this giant pyramid there are a few on very top and most are on the bottom. Obviously, those at the top benefit tremendously, so why would they want to change the system that benefits them? The top of the pyramid also sets the standards, the very context and controls for lower part of the pyramid, so how does a system like this change?

Maybe I’m wrong, but the way I understand it is this: Person A has a lot of resources and power. They want to do something. Person B doesn’t have resources and power. Person B still wants to do something though. Who has power over who? I think it’s pretty obvious that person A can compel person B to do things and it doesn’t work the other way around. This is a small, simple example, but I think it reflects what’s happening in our society. A trillionaire or billionaire decides they want to ‘invest’ in rockets, AI, data centers, whatever. The rest of us don’t really want that or maybe we want something else. Who wins?

Why can’t it be more of a trapezoid (isosceles?)? Assuming we even need people at the top micromanaging everyone (and maybe we do), why do we need such a concentration of power?

Just my thoughts of late.