For so many reasons, but the ones I want to focus on today are how much it is a hinderance to prosperity and how it can be a feedback loop to the lack of opportunity. Money makes money right? What does that say about a lack of money? I’ll tell you exactly what it says, it says that the less money you have, the harder it is to make money. Take for instance the act of buying literally anything; when you have little money, you buy cheaper things right? What is a pretty reliable rule when buying things? Cheaper means less capable and less reliable. Truthfully, buying a cheap car can cost a person more money in the long run than buying an expensive car in the first place. Also take for instance the laptop I just got. Had I gone for a cheap one to save money, it would have been less capable and therefore I would be less able and/or less motivated to do things like write a blog, record music, or possibly make some YouTube videos.
Here’s something even worse, the existence of poverty is bad for everyone. Having cheap stuff in existence at all wastes all of our resources. How much metal is wasted by filling junk yards up with old crappy cars, how much landfill space is used by “single use” cheap items that just shouldn’t be in existence? Too damn much. Imagine how many resources we’d save, and therefore free up for better endeavors, by ensuring everyone got as good of a thing as possible especially when it comes to essential items.
I think I am personally aware of this principle because I did not grow up very wealthy (not poor though) and so I currently find myself wanting to fall into the trap of saving money any way that I can. This manifests in so many ways, some just downright unhealthy; I try to save money buying cheap food, not going to the doctor, and not getting mental counseling, to name a few things. I feel like I try to save money for two reasons, most of the time I genuinely just don’t have a lot of money, and then the times that I do I am still conditioned to buy cheap stuff and that is hard to unlearn.
You can just say ” well just make more money right? Here is my question? Why are YOU willing to have a society with so many people wasting all of our resources just because they won’t get a better job? That is bad for all us, because our resources are finite. Never mind the fact that most jobs suck ass and treat people like machinery. At the end of the day, there aren’t enough well paying jobs for everyone but there ARE enough resources for everyone and we’d be better off if there were fewer extremely well paying jobs and more just comfortably paying jobs. Our current system guarantees that there will always be some people in poverty because it has less livable paying jobs than people. Our current system is incapable of giving everyone a comfortable life because it is built incorrectly, not because we lack the resources.
Steven Wilhelm 