Everything around us is a commodity; it has an ascribed economic value. Everything around us has been purchased, a reminder that we live in a consumer society. And from the moment each day starts a register is ringing, adding up the new costs of that day in our lives. From the devices we use, to the utilities that run them, there is a cost. The electricity to charge our phones and light our homes; the water we use to wash and drink; the food we consume; even the air we breathe. They all have an attributed price, which is our modern cost of living.
To offset these expenses, we work, which has its own costs: the purchase of transportation, the price of fuel, even the travel time has an inherent cost, as time is our commodity that we sell, along with any skills we may have. Hopefully, we are properly and fairly compensated for our time, though evidence in society would suggest otherwise.
The growing disparity between the “haves” and “have-nots”, the disappearing “middle class”, along with rising personal debt loads tells a story. Many will say that this is because of fiscal mismanagement, and there are cases of this, but we cannot discount the fact that the cost of living is rising, which creates its own economic burdens. And so we compete, try to make ourselves more relevant, indispensible, giving more of ourselves, to try to survive. And in this process, we have become dehumanized, nothing more than a unit of production on a balance sheet, which both industry and government look at to calculate our worth, our value. A sobering thought, which contributes to the fears and angers within our modern world.
Fortunately, though economics does dominate our lives, it cannot erase the humanity within us, unless we allow it to do so. Every day, we see examples of compassion and love for our fellow beings in the media and on the streets. We recently saw outrage at the recent U.S. government policies that separated children from their parents; the outpouring of support for strangers who face natural disasters around the globe; the ties that bind us as friends, family, and even community: all of these reinforce our sense of humankind, a sense of hope.
Time may be our commodity, something we cannot save, so maybe we should take stock of what we truly value. There are only 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week, and we know we have to allot some of those to work, but the rest of that time is ours. We should invest that in rest, self-improvement, and sharing time with others, as these expand our quality of life. We should learn to do more with less, reducing that need to consume as much, for deep down we know that our true value is not someone else’s attributed economic worth, but our social value to those around us.
John Kennair is an international consultant and doctor of laws who lives in St. Albert.
