Prosperity as a reference point

Here we are, a pandemic with no end in sight, an economy where whether it is doing good or bad is all based on that person's perspective, and a political system fraught with bipartisan nonsense as so many look ahead with uncertainty. I think we can all agree, regardless of what aisle you line up on, our leaders are doing a less than a phenomenal job.

So how does all of this affect the way our country sees prosperity? How entitlement seems to be everywhere and within every generation. I recently came across an article that wrote about how millennials have only ever known prosperity - therefore they don't know what life is like NOT doing as well as we have been for so long.

Our great-grandparents and grandparents lived through the depression of the '20s and '30s and two World Wars. Our parents had Vietnam and political turmoil and social injustices to face down. Yes, we are seeing some of those same storylines reappearing into our social consciousness, mainly because we didn't overcome the underlying currents that were bringing those issues to the forefront of society's attention back then. So now we get to "Groundhog's Day" through prolonged wars and social injustices that we didn't manage to learn from and move beyond in the '60s and '70s.

As a Gen-Xer, I too have only really experienced prosperity. Now, there have been tragedies our society has experienced and lived through. The Challenger and Columbia space shuttles, the World Trade Centers, unending wars in the Middle East, mass shootings - the list could take another 500 words to work through. However, I and other X, Y, and Millennials haven't known bread lines, gas shortages, food shortages, or depths of poverty and scarcity like other nations have experienced over the last 50 years.

Our reference points are totally skewed and I am not sure how we correct this. We could all go on a trip to the shanty-towns and/or slums of Haiti, Brazil, India, or a number of African and Middle Eastern countries to reset our reference point by concretely observing what they live with every day in comparison to what we have. Looking at pictures and hearing stories of those that have traveled to those places have their effect but it is not at the level it needs to be in order for us to pull our heads out of you-know-where and wake up to the blessed lives we get to lead in comparison to so much of the world's population.

Our poverty level is over 30x higher than the world's poverty level. Our poorest have indoor plumbing and electricity. I have seen homeless people with cell phones. Access to the internet is available to the vast majority of our population - maybe not in their homes but certainly, they can get on it. Again, there are so many more things I could write here but you'll get bored with that so I digress.

As the most prosperous country on the planet, in all of human history even, we are deep into just being used to having so much around us all the time. In psychology speak it's called Perceptual Adaptation - where we just get used to external stimuli so that we barely even notice it's there or at the very least just take it for granted.

Many of us have gotten so used to the internet and wifi-smartphones, a kitchen with ample food, a consistent job, a roof over our heads that when Covid-19 hit and our jobs furloughed us, we couldn't pay our rent, the grocery ran out of toilet paper and other staples, we were asked to wear masks to slow the spread, we couldn't go get a haircut, or go bowling, or go to the beach whenever we wanted we lost our heads (or place a profane word there if you please.)

We ARE getting used to this back and forth, ebb and flow, physical and emotional rollercoaster the pandemic is putting us through. It is human nature to find a baseline mental and emotional state and return to it so that our bodies don't get jacked with adrenaline and cortisol every minute of the day. A good example of this would be those of you who get emotionally triggered by social media posts and news channels that you don't agree with. If you find your hormonal levels spiking because of this, leaving you full of anxiety and fear throughout most of your days, then you have not mastered your hedonic adaptation.

Some more psychology vocab coming so brace yourself.

Hedonic adaptation is when we become accustomed to positive and negative stimuli so that the emotional effect is lessened over time. This leveling of the positive and negative effects on our minds and bodies over time is great for evening us out but bad when we just stop caring about making any kind of change that would resolve the underlying issue.

And here we are at the point where all of this meets. Our lack of ability to see and appreciate the prosperity around us guides us to feel and act like we don't have enough. We compare ourselves to the uber-rich, the supremely wealthy, the movie stars, yadda, yadda, yadda - and through this messed-up comparison system we blow-up our reference points and cease appreciating much of anything around us.

I love practicing gratitude, but I know for a fact that I have not thanked my lucky stars for clean water coming out of the faucet or a flushable toilet at my disposal every second of the day.

Our perceptual adaptation is so far off from most of the world's reality that we must sound like a bunch of spoiled brats to them. Do these shanty-town inhabitants even have a word for spoiled when they are lucky to have a pot to boil their twice-weekly water ration? We have become so accustomed to our baseline we are lost in our own BS. We get to pick and choose the foods we eat, the myriad of waters available to drink, the kind of phone we want to buy, the kind of carrier we want to use, the 27 different car varieties to choose from, the public transit system or publicly funded organizations that can help us when we are in need.

I am not blind to the economic disparities in this country, nor am I insinuating that they do not exist. Bezos being a soon to be trillionaire while many of his employees live at poverty level is not okay. Having a small percentage of people holding a majority of the wealth in this country does not make for long term societal stability. If you think you'll get a ticket to Elysium because you make a couple hundred thousand a year or are a leader in your industry - you are sorely wrong.

The thought processes and actions I desire to spark in you is that you look around yourself and ask, "where is my reference point skewed and how can I step back into appreciating the prosperity at my fingertips?"

There are those that have it better than others. That has been the case since the dawn of time. One cave leaks water and another is always dry.

As a society, we do need to be aware of and working toward better economic equality. The essential workers of our country barely being able to afford to live in the city that employes them is ludicrous. Saying, "if you want more money get a better education or better job," is a mind-blowingly misguided thing to think. It's basically saying, "while your job is essential, and without it society breaks down, but if that's the only job you can get or are qualified for, then you don't deserve a savings account or a retirement fund."

If the difficulty of a person's work was a direct reflection on the pay they earned then teachers, farmers, and factory workers would be millionaires (these are just a few examples so add the ones you know are crazy difficult on a mental, emotional, or physical level.)

There is a sense of entitlement to every generation - you baby boomers are not exempt. It's time we all take a step back, look at the prosperity around us, and really reset our reference points and gain some perspective on the bountiful society we live in.

If we let our lack of gratitude-based reference points rule our lives we are screwed. If we blindly ignore how our reference points and perceptual and hedonic adaptations are effecting us we will continue on our current path and our country will not be the prosperous place it is today in 50 years' time and certainly not in 2100.

The choice is ours. Meet halfway toward one another, and champion each other's goals and aspirations, or keep living in this scarcity mindset where we think there isn't enough space on this planet for everyone to succeed. The alternative is a very, very, bleak future existence for so many and the prosperity that we are so accustomed to today will be a thing of the past.

Hey, that's a good way to keep the next few generations from feeling entitled. Let's just wreck it all to hell now and then they can experience the world my Grandma Gardner lived through as a child. Boom - entitlement problem solved.

So many words and at the very end the solution arrives. Thank you for making it this far but I just solved the prosperity issue. Thanks anyway.