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Yup, to some degree if you have the money you can buy yourself a safety net. If you neither have money nor the social safety net, the thing left is what governm
by blablabla123 8y ago
Yup, to some degree if you have the money you can buy yourself a safety net. If you neither have money nor the social safety net, the thing left is what government may provide.
I grew up with a divorced mother that could provide only a small social safety net through family and an unstable financial situation. Although my financial situation is very stable since I've graduated - with small gaps - I'm extremely careful about my spendings and earnings, and instabilities worry me a lot.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoWe all have to do our part to extend safety nets to those in our spheres of influence. I have done very well in life, mostly through what I attribute to luck and being at the right place at the right time. In return, I treat checking in and providing a helping hand (temporary housing, an extra line on my cellphone plan, or in some cases plain old cash) to extended family, friends, and others I encounter as a second job. Societal fabric isn’t going to be solved through anything other than effort on the part of individuals.
- icelancer 8y ago> Societal fabric isn’t going to be solved through anything other than effort on the part of individuals. Very much indeed. We largely get the world we collectively bargain for.
- crumpets 8y agoIt’s what we collectively create, not bargain. There is nobody on the other side of society to “bargain” with.
- eropple 8y agoSure there is. There is a huge swath of society whose precepts revolve around "fuck you, I got mine." What are politics but bargains between those two positions? (They want to be they; we can only oblige.)
- jamiek88 8y agoWow. You’ve really made me think.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoI hope it helps. It has helped me immensely.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- david-gpu 8y ago> We all have to do our part to extend safety nets to those in our spheres of influence ...or we can collect taxes and provide goods and services to those that need it the most, even when they are not lucky enough to be in the "sphere of influence" of somebody that is (a) well-off and (b) willing to share their wealth with them.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoI agree entirely. But besides run for office (soon) and maxing out my FEC contribution limits (which I already do) to candidates who support policies that align with what you mentioned, this is the only alternative I can suggest. Tactical short term suffering reduction, strategic long term suffering reduction. Through both ideas and actions, you scale a compassionate society. A better tomorrow will hopefully arrive, but do what you can today with what you have.
- nicoburns 8y ago> Societal fabric isn’t going to be solved through anything other than effort on the part of individuals. Right, but this seems pretty defeatist, or even like it 's advocating against government support. As a left-leaning person in the UK, I would look to the government before looking for financial support from friends and family, because I see that as one of the functions of government, whereas it may put more strain on my friends and family if they needed to give me significant financial support. It seems like lot's of people have the moral position that the government should only be looked to for support as a last resort, and i would like to challenge that viewpoint. Kind of how it's much better to catch an illness early, it's much better to intervene early with difficult financial situations to prevent them snowballing into something much worse. And people shouldn't be made to feel bad for accepting that support.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoNot advocating against government support, I’m advocating for bootstrapping community (which government is not a replacement for).