Purpose
Purpose. I'm thinking a lot about purpose lately. Worth. What are we worth? We get paid money to do jobs, and many people I think just go through life doing their jobs thinking, 'it's just what I do.' Never a thought beyond it. Then one day BAM. It's over.
The thought of wasting away a whole life in this manner terrifies me. The struggle to find purpose is one that I think many people struggle with, but I also think it is one that many people do not. I wonder which is worse.
Finding a skill or a job that you can do and enjoy is one thing. That part is fairly easy. Not a given by any means, but someone growing up in a house with loving and supportive parents it's easy to see what you enjoy and what you don't. For me, it's endurance sports. Cycling, cross country skiing, running, swimming even, triathlon, biathlon. Here's the thing though. In America, anyways, you have to make money to exist. So the question becomes: how can you do what you love, AND make a paycheck doing it?
If life were totally up to me, I'd wake up every morning and walk out my front door onto the groomed skate track, ski 50k over beautiful terrain, come back inside, and warm up by the fire while reading. This, for reasons obvious to anyone who's passed 3rd grade, is unrealistic, unsustainable, and ridiculous. You need to have source of income, and for me, this comes from doing work. The work could either be for another person, like, having a job, or for myself, having my own business. There are pros and cons for both.
I believe that most of life for people who actually give a shit, boils down to this struggle. We live in a time when people can afford to search for their passion. Not all people, although I would like to see a time when this is possible. But some people can afford to search for the thing that they can do that makes them money that doesn't feel a thing like work. Sometimes, we find these things, like my skiing, and now try and figure out how to make money doing them.
What would the world look like if people could just search for their passions? This could be something we actually see, with automation of factory and other jobs. This frees up people, and if we had a universal basic income, truly universal and basic, then people could search. Some are more driven and will reach higher levels of success, and make more money doing so. Others will find passions that don't make them rich. This will be okay though, because their basic needs will be covered. You could search for this passion without worrying about where rent is coming from, where food will come for the table. Some people will use this to do nothing, to play video games, to sit and watch videos all day long. This is ok too.
If there was a basic income that was granted to all individuals, people could game the system by simply having many many children. They could then get all the money for those children, and abuse it. Would the solution be to limit the number of children, or to give vouchers for supplies and not money? It would then not be advantageous to have lots of kids, because all you would end up with is lots of diapers and baby food. It would limit the potential drains on the system, without a hard and fast law that says, "You shall not have more than 3 kids."
The last thing to consider right now, although far from the last thing to consider, is who would run this? In a world where everyone could pursue their passion, would there be enough people passionate about government and social programs to keep them running? I would love to say that I think one way or another, but the truth is I have no idea. I live in my own corner of the world and have no idea if a system like this is actually feasible. I like to dream it might be. I think the world would look a better place this way.
That's all for now. More musings will appear in this space, if you like that sort of thing. I can't promise they'll all be like this. They'll be about whatever comes to my mind. This is the internet, and I can do that. If you don't like it, get your own blog.
The thought of wasting away a whole life in this manner terrifies me. The struggle to find purpose is one that I think many people struggle with, but I also think it is one that many people do not. I wonder which is worse.
Finding a skill or a job that you can do and enjoy is one thing. That part is fairly easy. Not a given by any means, but someone growing up in a house with loving and supportive parents it's easy to see what you enjoy and what you don't. For me, it's endurance sports. Cycling, cross country skiing, running, swimming even, triathlon, biathlon. Here's the thing though. In America, anyways, you have to make money to exist. So the question becomes: how can you do what you love, AND make a paycheck doing it?
If life were totally up to me, I'd wake up every morning and walk out my front door onto the groomed skate track, ski 50k over beautiful terrain, come back inside, and warm up by the fire while reading. This, for reasons obvious to anyone who's passed 3rd grade, is unrealistic, unsustainable, and ridiculous. You need to have source of income, and for me, this comes from doing work. The work could either be for another person, like, having a job, or for myself, having my own business. There are pros and cons for both.
I believe that most of life for people who actually give a shit, boils down to this struggle. We live in a time when people can afford to search for their passion. Not all people, although I would like to see a time when this is possible. But some people can afford to search for the thing that they can do that makes them money that doesn't feel a thing like work. Sometimes, we find these things, like my skiing, and now try and figure out how to make money doing them.
What would the world look like if people could just search for their passions? This could be something we actually see, with automation of factory and other jobs. This frees up people, and if we had a universal basic income, truly universal and basic, then people could search. Some are more driven and will reach higher levels of success, and make more money doing so. Others will find passions that don't make them rich. This will be okay though, because their basic needs will be covered. You could search for this passion without worrying about where rent is coming from, where food will come for the table. Some people will use this to do nothing, to play video games, to sit and watch videos all day long. This is ok too.
If there was a basic income that was granted to all individuals, people could game the system by simply having many many children. They could then get all the money for those children, and abuse it. Would the solution be to limit the number of children, or to give vouchers for supplies and not money? It would then not be advantageous to have lots of kids, because all you would end up with is lots of diapers and baby food. It would limit the potential drains on the system, without a hard and fast law that says, "You shall not have more than 3 kids."
The last thing to consider right now, although far from the last thing to consider, is who would run this? In a world where everyone could pursue their passion, would there be enough people passionate about government and social programs to keep them running? I would love to say that I think one way or another, but the truth is I have no idea. I live in my own corner of the world and have no idea if a system like this is actually feasible. I like to dream it might be. I think the world would look a better place this way.
That's all for now. More musings will appear in this space, if you like that sort of thing. I can't promise they'll all be like this. They'll be about whatever comes to my mind. This is the internet, and I can do that. If you don't like it, get your own blog.
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