The fight between “more” and “enough.”

The fight between “more” and “enough.”

I don’t remember if I read the story or heard someone tell it, but it remained with me over the years.

A tourist stayed in a little town in Mexico where he met a man with a little boat and asked him what he did. We often begin a relationship by asking what a person does for a living. The Mexican answered. I eat my breakfast and go fishing to catch two fish. One I eat and the other I sell in the farmer’s market to buy some vegetables. I take a siesta and go for a walk on the beach. At night I meet some friends and we sing and party before going to sleep.

The tourist said to the Mexican, you can do much better. You can catch lots of fish, sell them and buy another boat or two and hire people to fish for you. You can rent that empty building beside us and start a fish canning business. The Mexican answered, why should I? The tourist answered, to make lots of money. The Mexican asked what for?

The tourist said, you can do this until you get old, sell the business and retire in comfort. The Mexican said why? You will be like me, answered the tourist. You can take a vacation by the sea, go fishing, have a siesta every day and party all night. The Mexican looked at him and said, That is what I am doing now, isn’t it?

The debate has been going on for a long time about who is right. Here in North America we measure our success by the growth of the economy while there are many others who don’t see a point in constant growth. Some people are content with what they have and don’t want more. You don’t see them in airports and they don’t work in high-rise buildings.

The two types of people can’t co-exist peacefully since those who are like the tourist in my story must use those who are like the Mexican fisherman to get rich and force them to work.

We know many people who say on Fridays, thank God it's Friday. They also watch the clocks for quitting time. People want jobs and hate their jobs. It’s not common to find folks who are happy with what they have or what they do. It is most popular to want more and those who don’t are considered lazy.

There is fierce competition for good jobs and politicians promise to create, save, or fight for jobs. No-one points out to them that as a country we have more than what we can use, that fifty percent of the food produced ends up in the landfill and that women carry the heaviest burden of this life full of consumer’s junk. We don’t realize that for everything we throw away people are working cheaply and hard in other countries. China didn’t ask us to move all of our manufacturing industries overseas, but now they want to join our club and we don’t like it. Japan did a long time ago.

I am trying to think, who do I know that is happy with what they have and don’t wish to have more. I can’t find anyone. All the people that I know at least wish to travel to other places and tell each other that they did. They all have cabins or second homes in Arizona or perhaps by a lake. I can’t find people I know who don’t desire more.

So, I stretch my imagination and look at how the world is shaping up for the future. Traveling is taking a setback, and so is tourism. There is a growing, well-based fear now that mixing up with other people may cost us our life. That is an outrageous price and those who don’t “believe” it soon will. After the wave of pandemics, every person will know someone who perished. The second wave usually arrives in the winter after the first wave.

Prices will rise. The jobs that are often done by women or less educated folks will now cost more, as society will rediscover the actual value of that under-appreciated work. Humans must have care in the beginning and at the end of life and women are those who provide it, often voluntarily. As we realize it, they will unionize and start demanding proper compensation, as they should. Immigration will slow down, and small businesses will disappear. The vacuum created will be filled with large corporations that will take advantage of the situation and increase the prices for all things. Our economy which existed on a credit bubble before COVID will come down crashing.

In poor countries, people will starve again as they were some years ago and the population will become dangerous to the affluent. Countries on mass will have to invest more in defense and what we call “terrorism” will sharply rise. Desperate people exercise desperate behavior. Even life in rich countries will change drastically. Gated communities will be in stark contrast to their surroundings. Security will demand that we will lose much of what we view as our God-given freedoms.

We became used to the idea that some people are entitled to a life of plenty and some of us believed that we can all have it if we work hard enough. Cheap credit gave us a taste of it. Now we will realize that there are limits. Time to pay the credit cards.

A most important fact to remember is that now China surpassed America in practicing Capitalism. The West is out of the race and must change to save face. After the COVID devastation, it will be the best opportunity to do so.

Our problem is that we only hear what we wish to hear and get shocked by the truth. Now it’s happening. We will have to live within our means and share fairly with those who truly work hard. 

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.