Self and society

All social ills can be viewed as a dysfunction between the needs of the individual and the whole. This is clear in several corporate conflicts now unfolding.

AT&T is planning to abandon their responsibility to provide land lines to every California customer that wants one, with no viable alternative. They want to terminate this service to save money, eliminating an aging system suffering from decades of deferred maintenance. In rural Mendocino county, this could be a life-threatening change as we have sparse wireless cell coverage, inadequate to meet critical needs in emergencies.

PG&E has begun planning to unilaterally cancel remote electricity customers, if the company decides service costs are too high. After decades of deferring essential maintenance, their aging infrastructure is prone to igniting fires, so they are reducing service and raising rates.

In both cases, despite decades of economic advantage from being public monopolies, these utilities have prioritized stockholder returns over commitment to maintaining their essential infrastructure, choosing private economic gain over service to society.

A similar situation is happening in the fossil fuel industry, where a few corporate monopolies, knowing their basic raw material (oil) is depleting and becoming more expensive, are choosing to gouge customers while they still can (currently $1.60 per gallon in California). They fund lavish stock holder buy backs, while pouring billions into climate denial, stalling any attempt to shift the energy economy in response to diminishing resources and the deteriorating climate caused by their product.

This choice of exclusive profits over social viability is threatening the entire economy.

According to Forbes, in 2023, the wealth of the 20 richest Americans increased by $311B, a 30 percent increase of $34.4M per hour, around the clock. But we can't afford secure emergency communications, an electrical system that doesn't burn down communities, or affordable transportation fuel.

Acceptance of such economic inequity is a cultural choice, not a fundamental of nature. In cultures that understand the inherent kinship of all people, such financial extremes are signs of ignorance or mental illness, not to be emulated, but healed.

This same prioritization of the individual over the collective is the root of the climate crisis as well. While our economic system has little consideration for other people, it has absolutely no regard for the natural world that is the foundation of society. The economy treats the world as a source of raw materials and a universal waste dump, not an essential living system.

A living planet is hard to kill, but we humans are numerous, and have become technologically powerful beyond all historic norms. To be so ignorant of our connected fate, is foolish, like an individual wave on the ocean choosing to ignore the fact that it arises out of the same ocean as every other wave.

We see this foolishness every day. A real estate agent, running for local government office, states that climate change doesn't exist, despite the fact that the fire insurance crisis, a consequence of the changing climate, is disrupting the entire housing market. In an attempt to avoid the worst of the climate crisis, California set a goal of decarbonizing the economy by 2045, but some people deride the effort as onerous governmental over-reach. In the US presidential race, one party is spending millions of dollars to defend a multiply indicted, convicted fraud, abandoning the rest of their party candidates.

There are specific policies which could address some of these problems: public ownership of essential services like telecommunications and electricity, or a maximum wealth limit. However, these would only deal with the symptoms, not the cause. The culture is dominated by the illusion of separation. There is no economic value put on peace of mind, being in harmony with nature, helping people, or being kind in every day situations.

Our economic model is an incomplete concept, regularly divorced from reality. Expected future income (debt) is created from nothing, funding any questionable endeavor that has the proper support. If it fails, the company is allowed to declare bankruptcy, avoiding responsibility for their previous actions. It is even acceptable to externalize costs, making someone else pay, despite receiving no benefit from the deal. Capitalism only works because the society pays for cleaning up the failures.

This insanity is coming to fruition. The climate issue is the ultimate inclusive force. We will solve this for the benefit of all living beings, or it will all implode.