I have recently finished The Tyranny of Merit: Whatever Became of the Common Good by Michael J. Sandel. There is an idea in Meritocracy that people are paid what they deserve, and that is based on their contributions to society. It’s just another bullshit excuse for oligarchy in the western world. The examples that are frequently given are Steve Jobs and the iPhone.
I don’t use an iPhone and my iPods are all mothballed. I’m out of the Apple environment and wouldn’t recognize from my OS9 days. But the development of the iPhone has pushed the market in a certain direction and my current Samsung phone is a hell of a lot more powerful than my first portable phone (with external exchangeable battery packs that were bigger than the phone!). But is this really a contribution to society?
We have more information at our fingertips that any generation that came before. I considered my family to by stuffed with knowledge as we had two sets of encyclopedias, several comprehensive dictionaries, and the Great Book of the Western World in the house. What I didn’t have, and what we still don’t teach, is information literacy, so all that information can be used properly. But I digress.
I want to acknowledge a contribution to society in my own neighborhood.
I live on a small cul-de-sac off a small side road off of a local thoroughfare that leads to a state highway. This crosswalk is on that side road, crossing the thoroughfare, which is on a hill and despite the major intersection at the bottom of the hill, people tend to drive through this intersection at typical breakneck speeds. (American drivers tend to have two speeds: Stopped and complaining about it, and 80 MPH. The goal appears to be to go between these two states as quickly as possible. But I digress.)
This new crosswalk showed up in the past few weeks. It’s on the route that I (should) walk daily. It’s also part of SW Trails #30 – Old Bertha Highway, which I have walked (It took two and a half hours. Ouch.) It has made crossing the street much safer. It has also given me a landmark to turn on the correct side street when I come home late at night in the dark.
I do not know the names of the crew who installed this. I do not know the name of the company. I don’t even know the names of the people in the City who approved this particular crosswalk. I’m assuming the Portland Bureau of Transportation. The point is this was done without fanfare or warning and has done more for the neighborhood than any hedge fund manager ever has.
The folks who pick up our recycling every week and our garbage every other week do more for society that anyone else, but we don’t think of what they do as a contribution, but an ugly job that has to be done, and we don’t pay well for this work. (At least, I can see Waste Management offers standard benefits and even will pony up $12K for you or a spouse’s education, but the actual salary for jobs is not listed on their site.)
When we are more focused on our comfort and entertainment we lose an accurate way of measuring a contribution to society, and so the wrong people get paid much more than they are worth and the truly deserving people live in poverty.