Society and Debt

-- By DanielYoon - 01 Mar 2018

Premise

The members of a society come together to build something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Optimally, each individual would have their own function, contributing to the community in their own specialized fashion. Each individual, drawing on their unique circumstances, skills, and life experiences, would take the input of education, time, energy, and skill, and convert it into some greater output, which could then be converted by others in much the same way.

Inequality exists in even a perfect society—after all, variances in experiences and skills is the human condition, leading to a socially accepted and positively-viewed product deemed “culture”. Yet these inequalities nearly inevitably lead to inequity, and inequity leads to inefficiency. Each person who is batted down by a combination of bad luck, bigotry, and systemic biases drains society of its resources, often producing negative output, creating social unrest, and burdening the system.

Natural Debt

Each individual owes some amount of “natural debt” to society. Everybody is a product of their environment, and invariably, they derive their happiness, success, and personal satisfaction from the collective sacrifices of others. They do not always ask for these sacrifices, but they are given freely, and sometimes forcibly retrieved. Such natural debt must be repaid.

If no individuals adhered to this obligation, ignoring the debt that they owe as a matter of course, society would cease to function properly. A society of selfish persons cannot thrive—the invisible hand is not enough to curb the selfishness of the human and the inequities of randomness. Fortunately, three factors pressure individuals to repay this natural debt: 1) they feel a moral obligation to repay gifts and help the disadvantaged; 2) they recognize that positive contributions to society build future benefits for all; and 3) they understand the personal gains that they can derive from establishing oneself as a contributing member of society.

Any given individual may generate this natural debt in two ways. First, they may gain an advantage from birth, in the form of class, gender, race, sexuality, or any other category of humankind which benefits and suffers from the biases of an unfair system and society. Second, they may gain an advantage from luck—some are struck by unfortunate circumstance, and others benefit from lucky breaks and fortuitous timing. With the advantages derived in these two forms, then, each individual must fulfill their obligation to repay the natural debt incurred by redistributing resources, helping the disadvantaged, and increasing the positive output they can create for society.

The Balance Point

Overcorrection

Unfortunately, humans are imperfect beings. Even an individual with every intention of prioritizing the “greater good” above all else will eventually fizzle out in a heap of exhaustion and cynicism. Every machine requires maintenance, and every human requires some selfish action to ensure they can mentally and emotionally continue to contribute. As a result, the obligation to contribute to society is limited not to the technical maximum efficiency that an individual can achieve, but the practical maximum efficiency that they can maintain—an individual working for 10 years at peak efficiency, who then burns out, decides they have contributed enough, and leeches off the system is worth less than the individual who works at 50% efficiency for their whole life. Therefore, some selfish action is not only necessary, but also beneficial to society.

Undercorrection

On the other hand, an individual will often find themselves deferring the repayment of their natural debt until it is too late. They took the higher paying, more morally questionable career path because it would secure their future, and once they had the opportunity to take advantage of such security, they could give back to society even more efficiently. After all, they reason, Bill Gates spent his career pursuing his own ends, and he reaped two primary benefits: He advanced technology, which contributes to society in and of itself, and he generated massive wealth which allowed him to repay his natural debt a hundred-fold through charity and investment. And so millions of others pursue the same career arc—selfish now, selfless later.

Yet an alarming portion of society forgets somewhere along the way their noble intentions to repay their debt. In the midst of securing their finances, building for their family’s future, and maximizing their personal satisfaction, they lose sight of the debt they owe. The low road continues to dip lower, and the wealth they accrue sits still for the future, until the individual dies. These are the parasites of society, who leverage their inborn advantages for personal gain, to the detriment of society as a whole.

Resolution

The difficulty lies in finding the balance point; how selfish should an individual be? How many sacrifices should one take for the sake of society, before they risk their future mental health, and how many times can one make the self-serving decision before they realize they have only dug deeper into their natural debt for the sake of self-preservation? This balance point is virtually impossible to pinpoint, but the best course of action is to err on the selfish side. The key is to maintain a net-positive lifestyle, slowly chipping away at the natural debt over the course of a lifetime. In any given moment, an individual who contributes to society more than they leech its resources can say with certainty that they are making progress towards total repayment. As a result, they do not risk building their debt to the point of insolvency, yet they do not risk burning out.

All members of a society must work to maximize the efficiency of their output over their lifetimes. It is impossible to pinpoint the optimal workload which generates such efficiency while preventing burn-out, so each individual must act sub-optimally, taking more input than they need, while producing less output than desirable. Such selfishness is not only acceptable, but it is also good and necessary. If one is to contribute to society, thereby repaying the natural debt and working towards equity, selfishness is key.