I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that you are dissatisfied with our society.
With the way the country is run.
Dissatisfied that there are so many problems that are just not getting addressed.
I mean who isn’t right?
We have all these important issues we need to address that just aren’t a priority. Issues like education, health care, mass shootings, Russia and on and on. Let’s not forget, political gridlock specifically and the broken government overall.
I could go or if you want more visit the problems page.
We have all these problems that are getting better for one simple reason. As a society
We Only Do Things that Make Money
As This is our mantra: only what makes people money is a priority. That is the problem. That fact causes so many of our problems – from climate change to poverty to war to the extreme division tearing the country apart.
Money is our master.
Bow down to the almighty dollar.
And if you don’t you can f*** right off.
That is the problem. That fact is the cause of so many of our problems.
Solving hard problems is hard.
We don’t do hard things
We do things that make money.
If they are hard and make money, ok we’ll do them.
If they are easy but don’t, we won’t.
That’s what the real problem has been for decades.
Almost by definition, the result of capitalism is to make people with money more money. Capitalists (i.e. people with money) invest that money to get more money.
It’s True in Business and its True in Government
And hey listen, I like money as much as the next guy.
This post isn’t about moral outrage or “doing the right thing” or the common good or any of that.
I’m just stating facts here.
To Get Anything Done, It Has to Make Money
Put yourself in the shoes of an employee at either Apple or the DMV:
- Apple – We can make a boatload of money making a great phone
- DMV – We can continue to sit on our asses because nobody will make a dime making this office more efficient.
Government workers usually get raises (when they get raises) by the year. In theory their performance plays a role, and certainly the up-and-comers with big dreams, can get promoted. But what about the guy that just wants to put in his 8 hours and go home to his kids?
That’s reasonable.
But where’s the incentive to be better?
To offer great halfway decent customer service?
It’s just not there.
Like Peter in Office Space, just work hard enough not to get fired.
Not saying people are bad, or even lazy (we all can be lazy, I sure can).
They’re just responding to incentives.
Business IS profit
“The purpose of businesses is to make money.”
It gets ingrained into every MBA student from day one. For corporate types, it’s as immutable as the laws of physics.
So there are all these problems corporations could easily improve, but it’s a question of profitability.
Unless someone can figure out how to monetize it, it doesn’t get done
What about Government contracts? There’s lots of money there
It’s true, a business CAN make money from government contracts.
And many companies do make good money on government contracts.
Government contracts can be lucrative.
But bureaucracy and politics often keep good companies away
Playing the government contract game is a much different animal than competing for customers in a free market.
It’s a pain in the ass. There are cumbersome procuring processes and paperwork and studies, political games, and on and on.
For efficient companies, it’s often more trouble than it’s worth.
ESPECIALLY if you’re trying something new that could impact who is getting paid now. If you’re upsetting the proverbial apple cart.
If you have a product that can save the government money, but will cost whoever has the contract now, you are in for a fight.
Companies that deal with government contracts by necessity have to be good at playing the lobbying and influence game.
When procuring a government contract, you can’t just win with a better product like you can in a competitive marketplace.
You have to win the game of politics too.
It’s a pain in the ass. And a game most entrepreneurs would rather avoid if possible.
It’s Behind the Gridlock in Washington
We’ve known government is incapable of accomplishing anything truly impactful for years.
Nothing that will make a transformative, real positive impact on the population has happened in decades- note ok maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but hey, this is the internet.
Unless there’s a HUGE pile of money behind it, the elected officials (at least the ones at the top, the ones that decide what actually happens) don’t have the time or inclination to work on legislation.
And it’s not necessarily that they are bad people.
It’s a question of hours in a day.
There’s fundraising to do, tweets to send, political points to score on cable news.
The resources for making the country better are just not there.
Let’s look at the biggest “accomplishments” of previous administrations
What About Obamacare? That Was Good, Right?
Obamacare? Although you’ll recall Trump got rid of it, Obamacare when originally passed required everyone to have insurance or their tax bill would go up. The idea that everyone can have health care is fine, but not when it means bankrupting families as health care profits soar.
You could reasonably make the argument that what was transformative about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was that people who didn’t have jobs or didn’t have insurance through their employer could get it through the government exchanges.
While that was reasonable, the bill didn’t do anything to address the actual, fundamental problem: that health care is too expensive. We can’t mess with people’s money.
We only do things that MAKE money
We must never threaten profits.
What About Bush and Education – That Didn’t Make Anyone Money… Did It?
Many of you are too young to remember, but, after invading Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush’s No Child Left Behind was his biggest “achievement.” It was presented as a way to improve very real problems in education. But in the end its legacy was opening the door for the private sector to profit from education without any real improvement in student learning.
Trump’s Tax cuts
And Trumps Tax … I mean the main thing they did was save corporations money, it was the goal. The administration argued that those saved taxes would be re-invested by the companies and would increase the average household’s annual income by an average of $4,000. I’m in no position to argue if that’s realistic or not, but even if it is, the tax savings went to corporations first.
We Only Do Things That Make Money
How much of Biden’s nearly $2 billion American Rescue Plan is going to go right to the bottom line of massive corporations? Sure better roads will help, but the priority is NOT what is best for the economy. The priority is what will make the people making decisions the most money.
The bill only passed because it made people money.
And I can’t even blame Biden or Trump that much. At the end of the day the president only has so much power. Elected officials exist in this system. They didn’t create it. Nobody did.
It just resulted from the incentives (and laws to some degree).
Our system requires that Congress (that means both houses) act in the interest of the people.
And it simply doesn’t do that.
Not unless someone, somewhere is making money.
It applies to the rule-making process
The only bills that are passed are the ones that someone with money has an interest in having. Getting language into a bill and then getting it passed is a gargantuan undertaking.
Someone has to put in the work to write the law and push it through the government bureaucracy.
It requires resources.
It’s just the normal consequence that the more resources available the more important it becomes.
Obviously, it goes for elections
The politician who gets into office is the one who raises the most money. And the big money contributions essential to success in most races don’t fall from the sky. Whoever is donating sees it as an investment.
And it applies to enforcing rules
The regulations that get enforced primarily only those someone with money wanted to get enforced.
That’s one of the factors behind the disparity in accountability for white-collar crime and drug dealing or stealing cars.
It’s a lot easier to put criminals who can’t afford lawyers in jail than wealthy people.
And of course prisons are money factories. You are guaranteed “customers.” What politician aver won running on cutting prison costs?
You know what else isn’t profitable is prosecuting officers that shoot unarmed black people. Because it wasn’t profitable, rooting out bad cops wasn’t a priority.
Until cell phones came along.
At that point there was enough outrage that someone could make money. Do you think the cameras officers wear, or the sensitivity training they are getting, is free?
Someone is making money from it.
We only do things that make money.
Sure protests put pressure on politicians but they are used to it.
If there wasn’t money to be made, I doubt we would be seeing the changes we’ve seen in terms of training and body cameras.
There’s no one person to blame
I’m not saying anyone is evil or even dishonest.
There’s no grand conspiracy, there’s not an evil villain pulling strings in the background.
All I’m saying is we only do things that make people money.
And that a lot of our thorniest problems are difficult to monetize.
So this fact results in a lot of the most difficult problems not being addressed.
It’s a result of our culture.
Until we change the way we think about incentives and rewards, “the common good” is up against a very powerful adversary.
So is there anything we can do?
Absolutely.
There’s lots we can do.
We need to tweak (or completely redesign) the Capitalist system so that some of the money that goes to the top is diverted to make things better for everyone.
I think the best way to do that is through Impact Consumerism – the idea that we as citizens can encourage businesses to improve society in general by how we spend our money.
Without a course correction, we’re heading toward civil war.
Historically, extreme wealth gaps have consistently led to revolutions, often quite violent ones. According to investor Ray Dalio, inequality
“leads to political extremism that shows up as populism of the left or of the right. Those of the left seek to redistribute the wealth while those of the right seek to maintain the wealth in the hands of the rich. This is the “anti-capitalist phase,” when capitalism, capitalists, and the elites in general are blamed for the problems.”
―Ray Dalio, The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail *ad
Left to run amock, Capitalism returns as much capital to investors and as little as possible to everyone else (i.e. employees, customers, suppliers). It also exploits society and the environment to take advantage of as many resources as possible (educated people, roads and infrastructure) without paying for them and externalizing as many costs as possible (pollution, injured employees).
Yes in many cases circumstances for those at the bottom are better than they might have otherwise been. But that’s almost beside the point. If one group of people is struggling while those at the top live in luxury, the resentment is going to grow. And the more people struggle, the greater the chance of revolutionary change.
Without some kind of guidance, Capitalism leads to wealth gaps, inequality and resentment that has led to revolutions since the beginning of human history.
We need to change the course. Spend more resources on things that improve people’s lives, but might not come with an ROI.
If we want to change things, we need to make it profitable to do the right thing. We need to align the incentives of the private sector with everyone else’s, so that we are working toward the same goals.
It’s just hard… and you know how we are with hard things.
We can start with Impact Consumerism.
If you’re interested in ways we can begin to change this dynamic, check out How to Solve Problems, Goals or Strategies.
