Society is broken.
Nothing works for normal people. Everything is hard and painful. Basic survival is an endless struggle.
How Society is Broken
Every aspect of our culture is broken. Relationships don’t work. Jobs don’t pay enough, while education is too expensive. People can’t afford homes, and they definitely can’t afford children.
We’re more divided than ever before, constantly at each other’s throats, arguing about who’s to blame.
Here’s how the most fundamental aspects of our society aren’t working anymore.
Education
The cost of education has soared 65% over the last twenty years. As tuition rises, social mobility falls, and fewer kids from impoverished families can afford the outrageous price tag.
But it’s not just college.
Nefarious players are working behind the scenes to dismantle all forms of public education. It’s not just your imagination: schools are getting worse. Voucher programs take critical funding from public schools, handing this money to wealthy families so they can send their children to private schools.
Teachers have no support in the classroom. They can’t discipline unruly kids or hold underperformers back without risking the wrath of parents and administrators, who’d prefer to let kids float by than make them achieve a standard.
But there’s not much of a standard anyway, as many states passed laws preventing teachers from actually teaching. Textbooks stripped references to the worst aspects of American History in a desperate attempt to maintain the propaganda of American exceptionalism. Teachers can’t teach the horrors of slavery or the reality of evolution.
Oklahoma just passed a law forcing teachers to teach the bible; a religious text that has no place in public schools.
Jobs
The entire point of education is to get a better job. But do good jobs still exist?
People must work two jobs just to pay the bills, as wages haven’t kept up with inflation. The minimum wage hasn’t changed for over a decade.
Companies have all the power. Employees work ungodly hours with swing shifts, few benefits, and the constant threat of termination looming over their heads.
Living
The jobs available don’t pay people enough to live.
People manage every day in survival mode, not thriving but merely existing.
Housing costs too much, medical care is unaffordable, and inflation eats away what little money they have for saving, investing, or even enjoying life.
More and more people live paycheck to paycheck, barely able to afford the rising price of groceries, much less put something aside for later.
Even those who can afford to go out realize what a sham it is. Everything is more expensive and of lower quality. Everything is designed to siphon your money away for as little as possible.
There’s nothing to do that doesn’t cost a fortune.
We can’t even enjoy hobbies anymore. They cost too much, so if we want to indulge, we must find ways to monetize them, which sucks the joy out of them.
Relationships
The gender wars pit men against women, and neither are backing down.
Dating apps make dating impossible for most people, yet everyone refuses to go out in the world to meet potential mates. Each side blames the other for all their problems.
Women grow weary of men who only want sex. They’re giving up on dating, believing that most men won’t contribute their fair share to a relationship. They’d rather be single and independent than get stuck in a relationship where they have to do the majority of the domestic, emotional, and mental labor while still providing half the income.
Men think women have too high standards. They long for a relationship yet feel dejected over the lack of opportunity. They want the relationships their fathers and grandfathers had and listen to internet hacks who tell them it’s women’s fault they can’t have them rather than a societal shift they need to keep up with.
Instead of working together, we’re growing further apart as men lean into right-wing politics, which strip women of their independence. In contrast, women lean left, refusing to return to a life of domestic servitude.
Having Kids
It costs over $400,000 to raise a child – not including college.
But it’s far more than the expense.
Society has made raising kids an impossible burden for mothers, who must work to support the family while providing most childcare and domestic labor.
Everything about motherhood penalizes women who engage in it. Whether they opt to work or not, society scoffs at their choice. Each choice comes with horrible tradeoffs that society does nothing to mitigate.
Rather than consider how society can change to promote motherhood, we dig in and force it. Women’s right to bodily autonomy is getting stripped away while the powers that be ponder limiting access to contraception. Sex education barely exists.
Millions of women are thrust into poverty because they’re forced to have children they didn’t want and can’t afford.
Friendships
It’s not just romantic and familial relationships that are failing.
People can’t afford friends. They don’t have time, money, or energy to do anything besides work and home maintenance, so they turn to the internet to fill the void.
It’s not working.
The internet was supposed to make us more connected than ever, but instead, it’s led to a massive influx of loneliness.
We’re all trapped inside our online echo chambers and refuse to engage with real people in the world around us.
Everyone is lonely. We have no village and no support.
No Social Contract
We no longer have a social contract.
In theory, we should trade our time and labor for money, which allows us to pay our bills and enjoy our free time. We should be able to go to a doctor when we’re sick without risking financial insolvency. We should be able to find a partner to share our life with, raise children if we want them, and retire to a life of leisure after working hard for forty years.
Instead, we must toil every second of our lives and sacrifice our well-being if we want children or relationships. We must give all we have to a company that doesn’t care about us until we’re too exhausted to carry on.
Every single problem we face is ours to resolve independently, with no help from anyone around us.
Society no longer helps each other out.
How Did We Get Here?
Societal breakdown is a complex problem. No single event led us here; rather, a convergence of events and choices thrust us on our current path.
The following are just a handful of causes of our broken society.
Propaganda
Propaganda surrounds us. Corporations and politicians use it to sway the public. It appeals to our internal biases and human flaws, forming our thoughts and beliefs.
It’s insidious because we don’t always know it’s happening.
The powers that be use propaganda to keep us scared. We vote against our interests because the massive media machine tells us things will be horrible beyond imagination if things change for the better, and we buy the lie hook, line, and sinker.
Corporate Greed
Corporations push propaganda to fatten their already bursting pockets.
The uber-rich already have 98% of the pie, and they want more. They raise prices, pushing everything to the brink of affordability while initiating propaganda campaigns, blaming anything else for rising prices.
How many news articles have you seen where a company boasts about record profits while refusing to increase wages, reduce benefits, or lay off workers?
They want more and more, and they don’t care who has to hurt for them to get it.
Globalism
The United States used to be a leader in manufacturing, but we’ve offshored labor to developing countries to save money.
Now, we’re not just competing with each other, but the entire world.
We’re no longer the leaders in medical care, culture, or industry. We import the vast majority of our consumer goods.
As other countries develop, their middle classes compete with ours, raising prices on a global scale.
Globalism isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s good that millions of people are being lifted out of poverty. However, it turns foul when the wealth created gets hoarded at the very top. Then, they use their propaganda machines to make us blame people in other countries rather than the rich and powerful who benefit most.
The Internet
The internet was supposed to connect us, enhancing humanity through information sharing and relationship building across international boundaries. We have the entire library of human knowledge at our fingertips.
Yet, instead of self-actualizing as a species, humanity devolved with the internet. We use it to elevate the most horrific views, to shout vile threats with the safe veil of anonymity, and to showcase the very worst of human nature.
It’s also morphed from a fascinating place for connecting into a corporate cesspool. Everyone online is perfectly curated and monetized. Most websites have one goal: make more money, and they’ll do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. They purposefully elevate hateful content because it makes them money, and the people eat it up.
Human Nature
Humans are capable of so much, yet all too many of us let our base instincts guide us, especially when threatened.
When we’re scared, we seek old comforts like tribalism and strong man leaders. Rather than embrace change, we cower, more comfortable with the devil we know than the risk of a devil we don’t.
We refuse to take chances to change our system and dig into practices that don’t serve us because at least they’re familiar.
Humans are also inherently greedy. We hold others to higher standards than ourselves. We seek relationships that benefit us, not caring if it benefits the other party. Our nature seeks to horde and control; it’s a survival instinct from the days of our earliest ancestors.
Although most of us can overcome the worst aspects of human nature, times of strife make it exponentially harder. When we’re stressed out, we can’t help but rely on these basic survival instincts.
Automation
Technology is advancing at exponential rates. Though we often blame offshoring for job loss, we can’t discount the rise in automation as an additional culprit.
Cashiers are being replaced with self-checkout. Robots now sweep floors. Artificial intelligence can write articles and create photos. Machines build and sort products.
Humans no longer need to do the vast majority of the grunt work. Many jobs only exist because, as a society, we’ve deemed paid work essential.
Changing Culture
Culture constantly changes. As we grow as a species, we realize how poorly we treated each other and work to make changes.
We’ve granted rights to people who, historically, have been subjugated. Although that’s an overall win, it’s a hard-fought victory. Members of the “privileged class” who didn’t actually have any privilege see the tiny amount of power and money they had stripped from them.
Despite the legal strides, racism and sexism remain problems and grow ever more rampant as wealth inequality widens.
Monied Interests
We’ve let money control our lives. The wealthy can now give unlimited amounts of money to lobbyists and political action committees under the guise of “free speech.”
They’ve bought our representatives and prevented the government from making the system work for the people.
Intuit pays millions of dollars to prevent the IRS from creating a free-filing system for the people, forcing everyone to buy their tax prep software. Chemical companies successfully keep dangerous chemicals legal. The oil and gas industry constantly receives juicy subsidies, making shipping items cheaper than producing them at home.
Big money controls our regulations to the detriment of all of us.
Religion as a Political Tool
The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees religious freedom for all, but many nefarious players are using religion as a battering ram to control the population.
People use “religious freedom” as a catch-all to allow discrimination and child abuse. They’re using your beliefs against you to make you believe that their quest for power and control is about saving souls.
It’s not.
The religious right is the most un-Christ-like movement in US history, yet they “praise Jesus” and convince millions of the devout to follow them.
Religion has no place in politics. We’ve let it creep slowly in, and it’s destroying our liberties.
Government vs. People vs. Corporations
Everything thinks it’s the government vs the people, but the real truth is that it’s a three-way battle between governments, ordinary people, and massive corporations.
Usually, the government is the only thing keeping corporate power in check.
If not for the government, corporations would steamroll the populace. Corporations kill people to make a buck and only hold back because government regulations keep them in check.
Unfortunately, corporations have done a fantastic job of convincing folks that governments, not corporations, are to blame for all of society’s ills. If corporations could only do whatever they want unhindered by regulations and taxes, everyone would win.
It’s a false dream promoted by the wealthy elite who only care about themselves, but a large portion of the population buys into it.
Of course, governments can be just as evil if they get too much power. The people must keep the government in check, who in turn must keep corporations in check.
How To Fix a Broken Society
Is there a way to pull back from the edge? Can we fix the broken social contract and rebuild society for the better?
Absolutely.
But we have to want it.
Stop the Hate
To fix society, we must stop hating each other. We can’t do anything if we’re constantly at each other’s throats.
Everyone is doing exactly what you are: trying to get by the best they can. The current situation isn’t your neighbor’s fault, so stop blaming them.
If you want to blame someone, blame the wealthy rule-makers who guided society down this path.
Listen To Each Other
We need to develop empathy for each other if we’re going to fix society.
Men – Listen to women about why they’re so upset about Roe overturing. Put yourself in their shoes and think about how you’d feel if doctors could refuse to save your life.
Women – listen to men about why they feel so lost. How would you react if you discovered everything you taught from the time you were little was a lie?
These are just tiny examples highlighting the many differences that divide us. If we gave each other more grace and empathy, we could come together to solve the problems.
Turn off the News
The media no longer serves the public. Its only goal is to make more money, and it does so by pumping out content designed for engagement rather than education.
Turn it off.
Stop engaging with rage bait. Stop letting big money trick you into hating your neighbor so they can make a quick buck.
Educate Yourself
An educated populace poses a massive danger to the rich and powerful. Stop letting comforting sound bites tell you what to think.
Use critical thinking to figure out what every piece of media you consume is trying to tell you. Are they making money by hawking products? Will they gain power and influence if you listen to them?
Nearly every piece of content available has an agenda. Take the time to determine what that is.
Learn the difference between peer-reviewed research backed by data and YouTube Scientists trying to make money off you. Read news from various sources to get a complete understanding of the situation. Ask questions and demand honest answers.
Be the Change You Want To See
Society is broken because everyone expects someone else to do the hard work for us.
Someone else will vote. Other people will clean up the park. Somebody will speak up for me.
Stop relying on others to change society. You have the power to model the change you want to see; you just have to get up and do it.
Vote. Share your thoughts with others. Talk to people. Model respectful behavior. Be empathetic. Demand the same respectful treatment from others.
Nobody will do the hard work for you. Each and every one of us must work together to fix society.
Embrace Change
Change is scary. It could lead to far worse outcomes than we have.
But sometimes, we need change. We must embrace it to grow as a society and a species.
Stop fearing change and start seeing it as the special gift it really is. What if we could create a society that works for everyone?
What if you didn’t have to go bankrupt because you got sick, you could afford retirement, your kids could afford college, and your wife could stay home for the first year of the new baby’s life without any financial repercussions? How can we improve society to make it work for everyone?
Ask yourself what your ideal society would look like and how we can achieve it. Don’t be afraid to vote for the politicians who will move us forward.
Yes, We’re Biased
We said above that you should always examine all your sources with a critical mind.
Everyone is biased.
We’re biased.
We slant to the left and desire progressive policies. Although we attempted to remain unbiased and empathetic towards others who don’t hold our views in this piece, we know it’s nearly impossible to write anything about our current political climate without at least some of the bias showing.
However, we understand that not everyone thinks like us. Although we may disagree on the current problems and how to best move forward, we can agree that we’re all humans and all deserve dignity and respect.
If we start from there, we can find a way to work towards a better future for everyone.