Oompa Loompa Now: The coming Apocalypse

Hey, Daddy, I want an Oompa Loompa! I want you to get me an Oompa Loompa right away!... I want an Oompa Loompa now! - Veruca Salt

There is a lot of talk about class gaps and they focus heavily on the economic potential and opportunity provided, they talk of privilege and entitlement, access to education or healthcare. What they often fail to talk about however in regard to this is what an individual can do about it.

For the most part, they give them image that a better position is something that can only be granted by those above and those on the other side of the gap are at the mercy of a ruling class. Yes, this is not completely without merit but, is there nothing one can do to close the gaps?

I see that there are going to be plenty of future differentiators between those with and those without if we are not careful. The largest of these is likely to be the consumer/creator gap where consumers are unskilled in their abilities to develop new and the creators are those who have imagination and creative talent. I think that even now as automation and artificial intelligence creeps in, we are seeing a slice of the future.

Retraining is not always possible however as although people would like to be politically correct in their speeches, not everyone has the same opportunity. I am the first to admit that I am not smart enough to work at NASA or cure cancer. For example, as self-driving cars come to the fore, how many taxi and truck drivers can retrain to become creatives?

I can talk more about those things at another point perhaps however now, there is a more immediate separator to consider that will drive a wedge between populations and can be readily witnessed here at Steemit.

The instant/delayed gratification gap. An immediate problem is a little bit of a pun, isn't it? The problem is that many are similar to Veruca Salt, they have the desires but not the means to achieve them which translates as reliance on others, for Veruca, it was her Daddy, for you?

Having the means is something that either requires inheritance, favour or... work and more often than not, inheritance and favour are in short supply, ironically often because of instant gratification fulfilment of immediate wants. This leaves work but, again, it is not just work. Earning isn't enough if the majority of what is coming in is going straight back out again.

For some here at Steemit, perhaps this is necessary but like I have said before, what did they do before Steemit and, what will they do if for some reason their earning stops here? Living off Steem without investing into it is very very risky in my opinion and people should avoid having to do it as much as they can. Though, for the most part, people do not need everything they earn yet spend all of anyway on what other may consider luxuries.

This is not an issue per se until we factor in the advertisers who are driving for more and more consumption all the time. This means that there is always a new toy to buy and hand to mouth soon turns to hand to debt servicing. We are constantly being encouraged to buy now, pay later and this is going to further widen the gaps as more get trapped deeper into a debt cycle.

But, thinking short is not just a problem for the investors, it affects many things like skill development itself. Most skills of value take time and effort to build but if one is driven by a desire to gratify quickly, the skills chosen to acquire are more easily obtained. Easily obtained means many can obtain them making them valueless.

Do you see the coming apocalypse? The instant gratifiers are going to be short on skills, short on opportunity, short on economic stability but, still have the feelings of entitlement to expect Daddy to do something about it. The delayed gratifiers however will have deeper level skills and the opportunities and reward that affords plus the satisfaction patience to prepare a strong foundation for the future.

What happens in this situation when the more responsible are forced to take care of those who chose not to invest in themselves yet, those who did not invest think it is not their fault at all? There are going to be some issues that arise.

Vast differences in resource allocation is always going to create conflicts and equality itself is never likely to be reached. But, expecting others to close all the gaps without developing the understanding and habits to support closing gaps is not going to help fix the problems. It takes all people involved to play their part which means all people to take responsibility for their part.

Maybe Veruca Salt is someone some people might look up to but those who demand and have their wishes granted by parents are called spoiled. Those who demand and expect their wishes to be granted by authorities might just be called delusional.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]