If enough was enough

Article

Putting Work in its Place

Summary

Our conception of the role of work distorts our political and family life.

Quote

"Members of the economy are increasingly unable to understand themselves as providing for a family and as cultivating a particular skill that contributes to the common good. They instead understand themselves as embroiled in a competitive race to an ever-receding pinnacle of success and, at the same time, as stuck in the vicious cycle of consumption and emptiness."

Understanding

How much is enough? Nelson Rockefeller famously answered, "Just a little bit more."

Politicians on both the Left and the Right aspire to eliminate barriers to individual success such as poverty, prejudice foreign workers, bad trade deals or regulation then let the free market make winners out of some of its participants. The elites are anointed and the also-rans become frustrated voters or opt out of the electorate.

What if we valued the quality of how each of us contributes rather than how some of us get ahead?  What if the restless striving that characterizes our American character was oriented toward doing our share rather than hoarding more shares? What if what we have is all that we want?

It seems naive to think our culture could recalibrate its values so radically. If we don't we will stay how we are only more so. We can begin with ourselves and the values we model for our children.