Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2015, 11:22 AM - Edit history (1)

... but there's so much more that could be on the list.

The life of even the "average" U.S. American is inconceivable to many, maybe most, affluent people, especially white males.

Expanding that idea worldwide, one begins to understand how affluent people still think the worst consequences of global warming and climate change are yet to come. That's because they are not indigenous arctic people living on coasts no longer protected by ice, farmworkers and small farmers who are having to relocate NOW because there is no water, or too much water, and so on...

... I frequently have to paint over gang graffiti on my back wall, there's a lot of older cars parked in people's driveways, maybe a third of the homes have "extended" families or unrelated people living in them, and nearly half the kids in the public schools don't speak English as their primary language at home.

But everyone except the small homeless population (some who camp within walking distance of my home) has electric lighting, indoor plumbing connected to a clean reliable water source, and a modern sewage system that treats sewage to such an extent that it can be reused for agriculture, and would even be safe to bathe in or drink if people could get over the fact it was recycled sewage. That alone is almost unimaginable wealth to most people on earth.

What's not to like?

First, of course, I had to see what fit for me:

There's a Whole Foods 20 miles to the south. No relative of mine is currently serving in the military, but my first husband, the father of my children, did. I'm paid by the day for a pre-determined number of days in a contractual year. While that contract says I have to be in the building for 8 specified hours each work day, the contract also calls for me to complete more duties than can be addressed in that 8 hours, so there is an assumption of hours outside the contractual "day." As a matter of fact, my union rep recently collected a chart of all the extra hours worked, and it turns out that the average is 12 hours a week beyond that contracted 40. No one I've ever WANTED to know uses meth, but my grandson's mother did for several years after his birth, and it contributed to being able to remove him from her custody and severely restrict her access to him. I married and divorced twice, and chose not to swing for a third strike. I was the first person in my family on either side to attend college; my oldest and best friend in the world did not, and neither did some of my other close friends. My colleagues did, and generally completed more college than I; friends I've made in the workplace attended and completed college. I don't have a criminal record.

I don't think I'm part of the problem. I come from generations of working poor people. Without offering up the gritty details, I know what it's like to be poor.

It seems like this article was addressing those who have made comfortable livings in the business world. I don't know anything about that; my people have always worked for others, and while I attended and completed college, I'm a teacher. A public school teacher. While I understand that conversations in the United States are based on a foundation of capitalism, I find that discouraging; limiting.

The most interesting and powerful part of this article, for me, came toward the end:

“If you’re the kind of person who tends to succeed in what you start, changing what you start could be the most extraordinary thing you do."

I agree with this. I know it's true in my profession. I also know that top-down political/corporate control of the system that I work in has mostly depressed my, and my colleagues', ability to do so. We are forced into mouthing corporate platitudes about data, about "targets," about tests and scores; our profession is forced into a business model that is totally inappropriate for our purposes. "Changing what we start" is dictated from the top, from powers that be that don't necessarily want us to be successful. Any positive, healthy, constructive changes that we want to "start" must be done from the underground, camouflaged from those powers that be.

you are not "part of the problem". I think it is a good point that many out there cannot relate to the huge disparities of living in r on the edge of poverty as opposed to being safe.

Great summary of corporate culture and lack of opportunities. Years ago when they brought in new leadership, they actually described to us flunkies how some new execs hired were all great friends, playing tennis and walking their purebred dogs together in a park. That was in lieu of listing their accomplishments! Incredibly tone deaf, to describe their upscale social lives in London. One hire never even bothered to relocate to AMerica, the office they renovated with state of the art equipment went unused. Friends let friend phone it in, I guess!

there is great motivation in maintaining and extending inequalities.

No different than if you treated parenting as a corporate business. Sorry kid, I have to let you go... Like the asshole who "re-homed" his adopted kid to a child rapist and, not uncoincidently, was heavily invested in the privatized school business.

Children are in no way "little employees" and teachers cannot be fully evaluated by their "productivity" in terms of standardized test scores because every community of children is different. High expectations for children is a very fine thing, but to compare two teachers on the basis of test scores, one who has a classroom full of affluent children of high achieving involved parents, and another who has a classroom full of kids who come to school hungry from homes and communities of grinding poverty and perpetual chaos, that is unfair.

I tried to be a public school science teacher in a rougher urban community and I did not survive to make a career of it. My wife's sister is a career science teacher and she sees things every day and deals with problems every day that simply do not exist in the corporate business world.

I own the label "bleeding heart," because my heart is always bleeding for my students. Whether or not we had a successful year, for many of them, is whether or not they were safe and clean and fed and clothed for the year. Academics don't happen until that's been accomplished. For some of them, just providing them with a safe environment for the day is all I "achieve."

It's just like with other kinds of privilege. If you have it, you might have a harder time seeing the problems people who don't have it deal with.

I do have wealth privilege, although there is no Whole Foods near me. I try to recognize the problems people who are struggling financially face, but I'm clueless. I'm lucky to have people around me who can kindly set me straight when I am.

Both of the Naval Air Bases I've served on has a Whole Foods within 6 miles of them. In fact, there's a Whole Foods, Fresh Market and a Trader Joe's (all on the same street) within 6 miles of NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach

I used to shop at a WF that was adjacent to a 500 unit subsidized housing development and three blocks from a large public housing development. There were wealthier people living in the rest of the neighborhood for certain.

But I wonder how the price of WF's bulk legume bins compare to the price of the packaged stuff in supermarkets. If it is cheaper then the WF can actually benefit those in lower income brackets in the area you described.

as is flour but if WF has the item on sale, it may be cheaper and the advantage of bulk bins is you only have to buy as much as you need or as much as you can afford and that's a big advantage for people on a tight budget.
If you're buying from the organics aisle at another store, prices are almost always lower at WF. Fresh foods are almost always more expensive at WF though but they have such specific standards on fresh produce, meats, fish and dairy that there is no bargain level. Their 365 brand products are competitively priced.

of their grocery shopping there.

there are many who go there but only get a few things and don't go there regularly.

To know what's going on and not be part of the problem, you have to have a criminal record, hang out with meth users, and be poorly educated; you know, like normal working people....

Putting it that way would get a well-deserved hide.

don't. If people who fit his description don't know what's going on then why is he telling me what's going on? The fact that the irony escapes him is really interesting.
And that is why I hate this one just as much as other TED talks. At least the author took all the free stuff he complains about getting. Again irony escapes him.