The Problem of Unequal 'Rewards'

 The first award I think I ever got in life....was a complete school year accomplished with no missed days (somewhere around the 6th grade).  You got called up to the front of the auditorium by the principal....getting a certificate of some type.  There might have been one or two kids out of each class that got this.  To be honest, it wasn't that big of a deal to me....I wasn't exactly aiming for this.  I think I accomplished another one of these before I graduated from high school.

When rewards did come in the next thirty years after graduating high school....they were for odd things.  Some rewards were on paper....some involved cash-pay-outs....some were days-off from work....and some simply were a paid beer.

Rewards were never equal....at least in my mind.  

I've noticed this trend over the past five years....a lot of hype over the unequal nature of rewards.   People seem convinced now that everyone should get rewards, and they ought to all have some equal level involved.  

In some schools....I think if a kid just showed up five straight days in school.....he'd probably get a certificate for that act.  

The value of this reward revolution going on?  I think it hurts society a great deal and cheapens the effect of rewards.  You might as well give a reward, for getting a reward.

What Are Weapons You Typically Bring to an Insurrection?

 Well.....pistols, knives, bayonets', machetes, shotguns, axes, rifles, tanks, canons.

If you were bringing bottles of water....flags....apples (for nourishment), or maps?  It's not really an insurrection.  

So the more this insurrection chatter goes on....the more childish the whole discussion becomes.

Discussing Disparity

 This week, I watched a YouTube video where a couple of folks talked to some degree about economic disparity.  You had a pro-economic disparity and anti-economic disparity representative....with a neutral person or two.

So the basis of this argument revolves around this....X-number of people live healthy, well-to-do lives, and Y-number of people live diseased (sickly), meager, destitute lives.  As you can imagine....it's not fair.

I paused over this argument (occurring about ten minutes into the discussion), and the rest of the chatter didn't really matter to me (I muted it).  

The basic problem with this discussion is that you would want to invent a want to take (tax or steal) the wealthy folks accumulation of cash, and just redistribute....in anticipation that ten to twenty years later.....everyone would be even.  Being over sixty and having met a ten-thousand-odd people on both sides of this problem....I can tell you that for each 'loser'....there's probably seven winners or marginal-winners.  And for each 'loser'....the majority of them (if just given the cash)....would be unable to develop the skill-set to be on the other side of life.

I worked with a guy who'd been given around $100k from Grandma's will, and spent around eighteen months developing the skill to handle money on his own.  Four years later....through a good sense of investing....the $100k was worth almost $750k.  

I worked with another guy who'd been given $25k by a will situation, and the whole amount disappeared in a matter of four months.

I worked with various individuals with drinking issues, and it didn't matter what the Air Force to stabilize their lives and halt the drinking.....the problem continued.  In one case, I figured the Air Force spent nearly $50k on treatment situations over a four-year period.....finally grasping that the guy could not ever get ahead.

The problem with the economic disparity crowd.....they really want to 'save' everyone and make the world an enormously happy place.  These are people who've never been to the Oakhaven area of Memphis on a dark night.  These are naïve people who don't realize the level of problems and how money doesn't cure your ills.  And these are people who feel that the crowd who got ahead in life....ought to be responsible for the 'losers' (when they really don't feel that sense of owing someone).