Being the Center: Wealth
It's only my second blog and 1) it's late 2) I don't have the energy to search for a topic-related episode of Arthur. At the very least I can say that Buster would do the same and maybe he would agree alongside me with my favorite quote from "This Is Water" by David Wallace which is: "The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and sacrifice for them...". Not only did I resonate with this quote while I read the speech for the first time but I can apply it to the exact Groupme conversation that thoroughly distracted me from this blog's deadline.
Some of my more politically vocal friends and I began to discuss the hypocrisies and/or lack of awareness in our "diverse" community of Troy, especially lack of attention within our social groups. (I could expand a LOT on this, but this part isn't the point) Our conversation spiraled into one about socialism and our fiscal political opinions. We all took a political compass quiz and as I suspected, I was progressive and followed a lot more socialist ideals than most. I can understand why one would be more fiscally conservative because it is possible to reason on the morals of protecting everyone's wealth equally however when pondering my own beliefs, I couldn't help but think of the importance of awareness and sacrifice, Wallace says "If you worship money... you will never have enough" I believe this is why the most rich people exist and what I'm about to say may come off as a strong and wild opinion, but the people (specifically in the top .1%) with the most money do not need to be keeping that money, aka EAT THE RICH. just kidding (maybe), but I am not against taxing the rich.
Going back to the original quote, "being able to truly care about other people and sacrifice for them"
is one of my most cherished values, so if Jeff Bezos wants to keep his outrageous surplus rather using his opportunity of ending American hunger and many other financial issues, then I find something wrong with that.
I find your political opinions super interesting, Ridaa! There are so many debates on how the top 0.1% of the population has more wealth than the lower 50%, and many different politicians have their own ways of sorting or redistributing the wealth of America. I think it’s alao really interesting how you spoke about the lack of the awareness of the diversity in Troy. There are such huge populations of many different cultures in Troy, and it’s so amazing to be so blended and have such a big melting pot of cultures. It’s really important for kids especially to grow up in a diverse community so they can learn about all different types of people, and not just become ignorant to other cultures that make communities amazing!
ReplyDeleteWow Ridaa! I really liked this blog, it really is important to be exposed and aware to different type of issues. I like how you incorporated the political side of this aspect as well as how its incorporated into our own city which is really interesting! very nice!
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