It’s hard to determine why you are doing anything. Why am I in school, why am I working this job, what am I accomplishing with my life; am I even living at all? There are some loose metrics that help us determine whether or not the things we are doing are worthwhile: happiness, personal satisfaction and fulfillment or an educational benefit.
But as our society grows more and more complex, a growing sentiment from influencers, politicians, businessmen and even our very economy provides an answer for the all-important question of “Why are we doing anything?” That answer is, are you making money and spending money?
Production and consumption – the belief that your life can basically be boiled down to how much you are making and how much of that money you are spending on things – is an all-important marker for determining whether or not you are living a worthwhile life. Many of the richest people in the world talk endlessly about how they spend their money on charities and social goods and how they labor endlessly for the public.
But when you peel back the layers, a lot of these people are living in anguish. You can find endless articles about estrangement from family members, how they often stomp on workers just so they can squeeze one more dollar or how they are simply in the business of charity for nothing more than a tax loophole.
This is my reminder to you: do not boil down your life to how much you produce and how much you consume. The human spirit can never be filled with money or with endless consumption of products. I know so many talented artists or brilliant writers who completely shaft their creative interests in the hopes of getting a job they’ll hate for 40 years but have a nice retirement package.
Our society has made money the ultimate judge of whether or not you lived a good life. Status supersedes all. Who cares if you lived for your passions and created memories or tangible impacts on people’s lives; everything should be viewed under the guise of profit. Billionaires are the perfect example of this. They have achieved a status that grants them complete freedom. And yet, they live only for themselves. They hoard wealth and are constantly described as narcissistic and cruel; they are so bought into the system of production and consumption that they can’t even appreciate simple human joys.
There is infinitely more to life than work and consuming symbols of status. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy those things, but we need to remember that our biology predates both production and consumption. Our brains and biology wish to live for more; status, wealth and products are only short-term fill-ins for our souls.
We as societies and as individuals must reject the constant and insistent need to always be working for profit and the accumulation of said profit. If people, say, had a four-day work week and clocked out before 3 p.m. for most jobs, you might not return as large of a profit for some shareholders on Wall Street, but you’d be given the opportunity to do the things you want and maybe find that time and space to fill your soul with meaningful tasks and actions.
That, of course, is only one idea, but the large point is this. Do not dream of work; envision a life for yourself that is founded in love and compassion with peers. One of exploration and discovery, not of profit and products. Money and the rewards of money can and almost always will be achieved, if not now, then later.
But true satisfaction with your life will not be determined by the stock market and how big your paycheck is. Of course, life is A LOT easier with money. But if you live only to get said money and hoard it, you will die saying, “If only I had more time to do the things I wanted to do.” When, in fact, you did have the ability to do everything you wanted to do. Profit and consumption sully the human experience to nothing more than quick dopamine hits that stimulate a fake fulfillment. Don’t live to make shareholders money; live for you and be free in your pursuit of interests and hobbies, even if to the detriment of said shareholders.
