Meme

Introduction

Many of us must have seen this meme. It has gotten really popular and made the rounds. It also has a lot of economic significance, and a lot of groups use it to further anti-capitalist arguments, Amish arguments, and other anti-technology arguments.

One thing is certain, it's true we pay to live in this world. You can argue that since payment is not just about money, animals pay too with time and effort to live in this world. (The time and effort it takes to hunt and find food and water, for example.)

But then, there is a huge difference between how they pay and how we pay. Our world requires more permission than theirs. In our world, the tools used to get what you need are land, labour, and capital. And getting them is not as straightforward as it is for an animal to get up and go get what it wants.

In our world, you need more permission and have less freedom to get up and go get it, because most things are owned by someone else, or the government. And even costlier is the fact that most of us have to pay rent.

But is it really as sad and shameful as this meme and all the arguments against our way of life put it? Is there really anything to be ashamed of about the fact that we pay to live here?

Let's find out with this little analysis of the interesting advantages and disadvantages of paying to live here.

Advantages

The most interesting advantage is the fact that we get to have a more advanced life. That is, a life with more options, a life that has been enhanced and tailor-made for more pleasure, comfort, and luxury.

You see this everywhere. Let's start with how we are born.

Birth

Most of us are born in a hospital, or at least with some professional help. This help is there to guard against any unwanted occurrences, and to make birth smoother.

So, birthing would cost us some money because the hospital/professional help needs to be paid for the "guarding against" they provide. But in return, we get a more enhanced birthing process than the animals.

An animal in the wild can't get this, and in return, they lose the enhancement we get. So how nice is it that they didn't get to pay? Are we not better off paying?

[Art created by me]

Feeding

Most of the food we eat is not in its raw basic form. They have been processed and mixed with many ingredients. We've used things like ovens, grills, etc.

Some of the ingredients take a lot of time to prepare. Some of them don't even grow in our continents. Some of the animals, fishes, etc we eat don't even inhabit our continent.

But here we are eating them, having them in abundance, because we can gather them from around the world. If we didn't have the option to pay would we be able to gather them?

The transportation and communication process it takes to gather them needs to have been paid for, or else who would spend time and give their lives to make these processes work? Even if it could be done for free it certainly would mean the supply would be way less and we would not have the abundance of variety we now enjoy.

Apart from the variety, the fact that we mostly don't eat foods in their raw basic form means we can get more out of their tastes.

Imagine eating a raw potato, or raw meat. Might taste better if that's all we have and know, and all we've been eating for generations, but it surely wouldn't taste as good as we can currently make it taste with all our seasoning and cooking.

So aren't we just lucky we can pay for these otherworldly tastes we are getting? Would a world where we can't get this otherworldly stuff be as worthwhile?

Shelter

At this point the message is clear. The kind of shelter we have from the weather, insects, predators, etc. The kind of luxury and comfort we can have in them are only possible because we have the option to pay.

If we couldn't pay who would build all these many complicated structures that enhance safety and comfort? Who would build the television, WiFi, Air conditioning, electricity, cable, etc that makes them luxurious?

This same explanation can go for Technology, Communication, Clothing, and other stuff we pay for.

Government and Taxes

Talking about governments and taxes here is a little tricky because there are many ways in which our governments fail us and many valid complaints about them. Governments through wars, bad policy, corruption, etc can also be part of our suffering.

Also tricky because there are many of the things the government does for us we can do for ourselves if we cooperate as a society.

But the fact remains that government is one way we have come up with to cooperate and do things for our societies like security, infrastructure, and order. And until we come up with another way, this is what we have.

And if we don't pay, how do we achieve these goals we have set for our governments?

Disadvantages

The most interesting disadvantage is that we have all these man-made stuff that we have to pay for, they complicate our lives because a majority of humans can't make enough money to pay for all they want. And we can't live a happy life without all these man-made stuff.

A man off the grid with a shed in the forest, no phones, no advanced technology. Just a spear, arrows, and blades that he uses for hunting and gathering can be a very happy man.

But how many people can live like that in our world today? Especially when they know that there is a more enhanced and luxurious life out there?

This is the disadvantage. The fact that most of us can't opt out of this life of paying without being sad and feeling like we're living a less qualitative life.

Since the option to pay and have more luxury is there, most of us would rather die trying to pay for these things than leave it all and go lead a life without it in some forest.

Even simply reducing how much technology/luxury we aspire for is difficult for most of us.

Conclusion

Clearly, we are lucky we have the option to pay and have these otherworldly pleasures that we're having. But it takes a lot of work, and man can be happy with way less, but the mere existence of the option to pay has made it more difficult and painful for a man to be happy with less.

So most of us now have to go through all the work and fighting it takes to keep paying and having these things. People are working 2, 3 jobs, and still finding it difficult to be comfortable and have the peace and abundance needed for a happy fulfilled life.

The End

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