Wednesday, November 17, 2010

My dependency culture

My name is Tom and I live a life of economic dependency.

I depend for my livelihood on all the strokes of luck – most obviously my parents’ dedication, a hefty amount of genetics and a good, free education – that gave me the qualities I have. More immediately, I depend on an economic system that values these qualities, so that there have (mostly) been job vacancies in the right place at the right time, with a level of pay that covers my needs and even my tastes.

On top of that, I’m willing to work to earn this pay; for this, I’ll take some personal credit (although plenty of people worse off than me have stronger work ethics). But apart from that, I’m responsible for none of the circumstances that allow me to convert my willingness into comfort.

My job, while mostly tedious and often frustrating, rarely places too much strain on me – and is occasionally rewarding. Now and then, if I do something particularly well, I might feel proud of what I’ve achieved. But a moment’s reflection tells me that the more pertinent feeling is gladness at a situation where I have the ability to achieve such things and the opportunity to use that ability (and to sell it for a decent price).

I’ll never be rich, but I’m still dazzlingly lucky. What separates me from all the people who’d like to work but can’t, or want decent work but can only find back-breaking, soul-destroying, minimum-wage drudgery, is sheer chance. They may be dependent on benefits to keep the wolf from the door; I’m dependent on the coincidence of supply and demand that happens to define my labour as valuable. The labour market may more or (often) less efficiently rate our merit as employees, but it isn’t a fair judge of our virtues as people.

Moral crusaders against ‘dependency’ need to remember this.

(This train of thought, if you can call it that, was set off by two good posts from Peter Ryley and Paul Sagar.)

9 comments:

Liam Murray said...

Hopi makes a similar argument now & again and I think it confuses active & passive dependency or, to put it differently routine & circumstantial dependency.

I'm quite comfortable challenging the more moronic references to dependency which do seem to be growing in number. But that has to go hand in hand with an acceptance on the left that the system does support some people who actively choose to depend on others and who must be challenged in doing so.

Anonymous said...

ITS SEEMS TO ME THAT YOU ARE FULL OF YOURSELF! YOU HAD THINGS HANDED TO YOU. WOULD YOU FEEL THE SAME WAY IF YOU HAD TO DO EVERYTHING ON YOUR OWN? LIKE SOME OF THESE UNFORTUNITE PEOPLE WHO STRUGGLE TODAY, THAT WORK HARD & DO THEIR BEST. NOW THAT IS SOMETHING TO BE PROUD ABOUT. YOU NEED TO GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE. YOU MIGHT HAVE A GOOD JOB, BUT YOU ARE NOT A GOOD PERSON!

Anonymous said...

To Tom, How dare you put people down not knowing their situation or what they've been through. Yes u got lucky your parents helped you, & got to go to college. Did u really work hard for that, or was it all luck? If you really want to be proud of yourself, help others less fortunite than yourself.

Mil said...

Thanks for that Tom - all things I've been trying to work out to how to say myself. And yes, I read Peter's piece too. This is a meme which needs developing and understanding far more. Dependency as a concept makes the subject so guilty - so easy to blame. Poverty, on the other hand, requires structural change - the kind of change the fortunate in society would not readily agree to.

Far easier to blame the dependent than address the poverty-stricken, don't you think?

Jim Bliss said...

"And the 2010 award for Spectacularly Missing The Point goes to... well, folks, amazingly we have a tie this year... the award is shared between Anonymous and... Anonymous."

Tom Freeman said...

Oh. My. Word.

Anonymous 1 & 2, I obviously know nothing about either of you. For all I know, you both regularly have to deal with well-off people thinking they're better than you, in which case they are arrogant idiots and nobody could blame you for being utterly sick of that sort of treatment.

But I beg you, if you properly read what I wrote, you'll see that my opinion is exactly opposite to that sort of lazy sneering. You may not have meant to, but you're both violently agreeing with me.

Will said...

the anon comments are show why blogging is utterly pointless.

Please everyone -- give the fuck it up and start punching cunts in the mouth instead.

Will said...

btw -- you do come across as a bit of a self-satisfied pompous middle class fuckking eedjiot in this post as well.

You don't know the friggin half of it mate. not by a long way.

Tom Freeman said...

Probably true Will. But I'd rather admit how little I know than be one of those middle-class morons who emote about 'the simple nobility of poverty' and reckon they can get a meaningful insight by watching a Ken Loach film or some such crap.