Scrolling along the other day, I came across one of those take-a-poll memes that attempts to be inspiring and self-reflective. It asked if we'd still be working the same job if money weren't a real thing. The goal of course being to assist me and other scrollers to follow our bliss so that the job we have never feels like a job because we love it so much.
Maybe I would've bought that plot of land in Scotland
and gone to raise goats.
What do you think, Goat? You and me and Scotland?
My answer at first was probably not. If money wasn't a thing, I'd have gone right to a master's program for acting. I would have moved to a major city, probably on the Pacific Northwest Coast. Let's be real here: if money were not a thing, there are a lot of implications and your chosen job is just one. Besides, if money wasn't a thing, why work in the first place? Who in the world is going to want to work in a water treatment plant processing sewage if they aren't getting royally compensated? Are there really people "called" to do this? I find it difficult to believe that someone would want to risk their life in a coal mine either. It seems like unless the money was involved, people would think "fuck this" when asked to go underground where you can die in a myriad of different ways especially when one of those ways is crushed to death.
I don't think so either, Danny.
Congrats on your Danny DeVito Day BTW.
That aside, there are a tremendous positive implications, too. No more worrying about bills and whatnot. Prescriptions and doctor appointments and ER visits are no issue. Medical staff do it because they want to and you don't have to pay $200 for an aspirin in the ER. I don't really know how much an aspirin costs in the ER, but you get the point. People could stay home when they have a cold instead of going to work at their second job waiting tables. No pesky student loan repayments. Anyone can drive a Porsche and live in the Riviera. We could finally get that cabin in the woods far, far away from anyone else. The elderly would be taken care of because retirement villages and nursing homes wouldn't be so fricking expensive. People would be fed because it's the right thing to do to help feed others rather than shaming them for using food stamps to buy whatever the fuck they want and you don't get a say just because you paid your taxes. Everyone could have those basic needs met: food, shelter, and clothing all available for everyone. We could all live in an age of utopian bliss!
Of course, what would Oprah give away? Everyone would already have that stuff.
As for teaching, I might actually still do it. Honestly, think about how much money is talked about in education. There's never enough. Money won't solve the problem. Teachers don't make enough. The buildings are falling apart and need some renovation. Books and school supplies cost too much. Students can't afford to pay their lunch bills.Technology is needed but we can't make it happen. The list goes on. If all that went away, think about how beautiful education could be. Learning for the sheer joy of learning! It'd be glorious.
Sure. If you wanted a deeper understanding of the many kinds of shrimp preparations,
you could do that.
Without money, would we still compare our system to other countries via test scores? Probably not because there'd be no money in high stakes testing. We could get all the goodies to prepare students for the world in which they live. We could go on a fieldtrip to Madagascar to learn about lemurs rather than just watch a video. We could do some real authentic learning outside of four brick walls. Total immersion language learning and cultural appreciation. Maybe, just maybe we wouldn't grind teachers into the floor. Maybe, just maybe, students wouldn't lose their will to learn.
Teachers and students would no longer hear this knell of anguish.
It's an interesting idea. I don't have any clue how the world would function without money. Would we still have a trade system for goods? Would greed still be a thing if hoarding money wasn't possible? Would human beings be kinder to, gentler with, and concerned for others? I'd like to believe so, but I'm also cynical about humans. Some are gracious and benevolent even with the money system as it is. Others are just assholes. Can taking money out of the equation really fix that? I suppose that's what daydreaming is for though: a world with no assholes.
Maybe I could just hang out with you, Moose.
Would that be cool? You're not an asshole are you?
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