Just recently in the United States the government signed into law a pretty extensive budget package. The money in the package will go towards combating climate change and inflation.
Some people are very vocal about the law because this will involve a tax to help pay for the changes made. The tax is minimum almost non existent for most of the population and actually not an abhorrent amount for the wealthy. By wealthy I mean anyone making over 400000 dollars a year.
When I hear citizens complain about taxes that they will not pay or are less that 2 % of their income I start to wonder why. The climate crisis that our world is facing is one of the largest crisis that humanity has ever faced and it is existential. To pay just a little bit of money in taxes is well worth the continued existence of the human race.
I think part of the problem is that in the United States many of the citizens have been conditioned to be Consumers first then citizens. I have seen this ideology with Union votes in factories and warehouses. The major reason most people vote against unionization in a warehouse or factory is that the employer promises that they will raise the cost of their goods if a Union is voted in. A good citizen would support safe working conditions and equitable pay that comes with a good workers union, however a consumer would only care what a good cost them. The same attitude seems to be going on with the climate. A good citizen would support laws that address climate change but a consumer would care less bot the climate and more about the cost of goods produced.
Money is a medium of exchange, it is a payment for resources or services. The resources that money can buy like clean water and safe food those are what matters not really the money. Being a good citizen should have very little to do with money and everything to do with how a nation or world divides and uses their natural resources.
I wonder how much better would our world be if as a society we focused less on money and more on.. well everything else?
The Corrigan Encore 