Do you ever think about responsibility?  I was thinking about mental health issues everywhere and all the social media blaming.  I was wondering if our society has shifted the responsibility of one’s thoughts and actions to another party.  (why is it is a “party?”)

In another time, long ago, when I was growing up, I learned to be responsible for myself.  I came home from school and took care of myself for a few hours.  I knew if I went outside in winter that it was my responsibility not to freeze or die from being stupid.  I knew my role in school was to complete the assigned tasks to move along in the system—there was no “please help me, I need extra credit to catch up.”

As I moved into older ages, I learned to manage my income.  I understood that included the govt taking a chunk to fund themselves—I mean our society.  It took me longer to understand my health responsibility to myself to lose weight and gain fitness.

I was reading an article complaining about whatever and promoted the desire to banish scarcity.  I’m not linking to this nonsense article.

Responsibility

This article made me think about who is responsible for actions.

It made me think about the news and the battles over politics.  It made me think about candidates and parties.  I thought about govt funding and how it differs from my process of not spending the income that comes in.  In adolescence, I learned the simple equation of cash flow on/out.

I really started to think about “policy” and “programs.”  Who is responsible for bettering one’s self?  Who is responsible for gaining knowledge, skills, and abilities?  Is that something a govt department manages to hand out my earnings to people?  I understand helping with base/core requirements and crises is important.  But, where is the bottom line?  When does the outflow get its amount allocation?  It seems to be based on public desire/perception.  Then pork barrel funding is hidden in the details…TLDR for sure.

Protection vs Comparison.

I think back to the article and how humans are programmed since cave people to acquire and hoard for sustainability…and somehow we now compare ourselves to neighbors and their shiny new car or what others have on TV shows???  It goes on to explain how social media scrolling ruins our psyche.  Is social media a comparison checklist of Instagram amazingness?  Is none of this self-inflicted?

Reward

What is a reward vs a life need?  Of course, we should have rewards.  Maybe the reward goal should be internal more than social media externally driven.  Maybe the rewards should include some delayed gratification to validate the true desire and optimize the exactness of the purchase/spend.

Control

Yes, I know there are a lot of problems, concerns, and inequality in the country and world.  I’m just thinking that the self-ownership of a lifetime of small decisions toward improvement can make a massive difference as time goes on.  I don’t understand how all of these “we need a policy” statements or worse a “program” is going to resolve this.  So many look to others to solve the problems, and I’m pretty sure the others- (in this case the govt—who seem to look out for themselves first and reelection seconds, and their constituents third) aren’t really out to solve your specific problem, even is it is this newly created “safe-space” country we’re moving into.

Leaders?

I think about the term “policy-makers” and what I recently realized *BAM* “law-makers.”  Our elected govt official seems like their main task as “law-makers” is to make laws.  Create new laws, more and more and more new laws every session, every year. 

What if we had new terminology: “elections for lawmakers?”  Not elections.”  Not “elections of political parties.”  Shouldn’t it be elections for “representatives,” which I believe was the initial goal of this country’s government?  People served their communities and went back to their lives.  They weren’t career politicians.  I don’t know about being power-hungry.

Policy, Policy, Policy

I just think the phrase “we need a policy” gets under my skin.  I’d personally rather hear “we need responsibility” which should include fair opportunities to better ourselves.  Oh, but that takes effort, often a LOT of effort.

I should end by stating that I’ve made plenty of mistakes.  But, I truly believe in 99% of my actions, I give intentional thought to the task, its predecessors, and its probable outcomes.  But, I know I think too much, too often.  I may be, and I have been—wrong.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.