I Just Overheard Two Squirrels Talking About Ideologies.

I don’t usually write about conversations that I overheard. This is an exception. There are two squirrels often hang out in my backyard and they are best friends. One of them I’ve known for almost 6 months but he has been living in the hood for years. The other one I think lives nearby. I usually feed my friend with his favorite Italian bread for lunch. We have built-up our friendship over the last six months.

I remember one November day they were (there were 2 others) collecting pinecones and hazelnuts preparing for winter. They were working hard gathering cones from the big evergreen tree in my backyard and while they were taking a break, I overheard their conversations below.

Squirrel A (My friend): I want to figure out a better way to do this. There’s must be a better way to make our life easier. We need to think production and perhaps have other animals to do some work for us?

Squirrel B: What’s wrong with our current system? We all work hard and get our share. We do these seasons after seasons and it has been like for centuries.

Squirrel A (My friend): That’s the problem. That’s why we are still labor and we can get out of this.

Squirrel B: If you come up with an idea that would be good and we don’t have to work anymore. And we get food from you.

Squirrel A (My friend): Well that’s not how it works. In that case why should I be motivated to come up with the new idea and make it work? I need incentives or I’ll just sit around and wait for this to happen. That's human nature.

Squirrel B: That’s true. But you're not human. I have been waiting for this to happen. Someone needs to rethink how we can live a better life and work less. I don't mind if he takes a bigger share.

Squirrel A (My friend): Isn’t that’s capitalism.

Squirrel B: Oh. What if we own the means of production and your idea becomes ours.

Squirrel A (My friend): That’s socialism.

Squirrel B: Oh. It would be good for someone to come up with a great idea and increase our ability to collect and store food. And we can all draw on it and no one needs to work anymore.

Squirrel A (My friend): I think they called it guaranteed minimum income. But who is going to provide that?

A red Tesla Model S drove past and the two squirrels turned their heads.

Squirrel B: No one should own a car like this. No one needs a car like that.

Squirrel A (My friend): I think everyone should be able to afford a car like that even if they don’t drive. Elon needs to sell more cars and not flamethrowers.

At that point I couldn’t help but to intervene and shouted: You guys wasted so much time arguing, you could have collected enough food for the whole winter. Get back to work!

The conversations felt like the debate we’ve been having everyday. Capitalism needs some fixing and we must give them the credit for bringing us so many modern conveniences that make our life more comfortable or entertaining from Netflix, Google to Instagram. There’s a reason why these goodies didn’t emerge from Cuba, Soviet Republic or North Korea. It is not cool think for us to think that we can just rebrand and reposition “socialism” and forgot that it was a failed experiment.

Capitalism will always result in some people doing better than others. But those who have the least have still far higher standards of living than they used to or those living under socialism for decades. Large majorities of those living in poverty in the United States still own cellphones, televisions, eat McDonalds and even drink Starbucks coffee.

"Chhhh! Chhhh!”