J.D. Moyer

sci-fi author, beatmaker

Tag: Wall Street

Is “Wealth Addiction” an Illness?

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On January 20

In Alternative Economics, Culture Rants/Shares, Mental Health, Money/Personal Finance, Politics

Crazy money.

Crazy money.

Sam Polk’s piece in Sunday’s New York Times chronicles his journey from greedy derivatives trader to nonprofit founder. It brings the concept of “wealth addiction” into the mainstream.

Is “wealth addiction” really an illness? Left untreated, the accumulation of wealth generally doesn’t lead to ruined life, or death. But Polk claims that this malady tears apart the social fabric, and hurts us collectively. Polk writes: “Wealth addicts are responsible for the vast and toxic disparity between the rich and the poor and the annihilation of the middle class.”

I think it’s valuable to consider the psychology of the ultrarich. What drives their behavior? Maybe it’s important to call out extreme asset accumulation for what it is: pathological fear-based hoarding, a scarcity mindset in the midst of abundance.

But even more important is to examine the system that enables such behavior. How do the ultrarich accumulate so much wealth, and hang on to it? Corporatism enables such behavior, with four simple methods:

  • a corporate charter that criminalizes putting any priority ahead of shareholder profit
  • an upper income tax rate of less than 40% (the upper rate averaged around 75% between 1932 and 1981)
  • corporate lobbyists influencing lawmakers to loosen regulation on Wall St.
  • media corporations that glorify extreme wealth

We aren’t going to address extreme income inequality by rehabilitating Wall Street traders one-by-one (or by waiting for them to become moderately enlightened and drop out of the rat race). We’re going to fix radical income inequality with a return to historical, more sensible progressive taxation, intelligent reform of the corporate charter (California’s “Flexible Purpose” and “Benefit” corporate structures are a good start), restricting corporate access to lawmakers, and support for independent media.

Four causes, four solutions. Questions? Difference of opinion? Please comment below.

The Pursuit of Happiness Is Meaningless Without the Pursuit of Justice

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On December 16

In Culture Rants/Shares, Metaprogramming, Utopian Speculations

Where’s the Justice League when you need ’em?

Ambushed By An Article

Yesterday morning I was happily drinking coffee and reading the New York Times, when I came across this disturbing article by conservative think tanker Arthur Brooks.

The piece starts off as a bland rehash of “the latest” happiness research (trotting out studies from the seventies). Nothing new, but nothing offensive either. Towards the end, the piece takes a sharp right turn as Brooks champions free enterprise as the solution to both personal happiness and global poverty. The bogeymen of socialism and collectivism are trotted out as the usual enemies. Perhaps as an apologetic concession to liberal NYT readers, Brooks does acknowledge that social mobility and economic opportunity are on the decline in the United States (at least as compared to Canada and the Scandinavian countries — ironically all collectivist social democracies). The whole piece is a confused mess.

Personal Development Hijacked by Corporate Ideology

So why am I writing about it?

This blog is subtitled “Systems for Living Well.” I agree with many of Arthur Brooks’ conclusions about personal happiness (a spiritual life, strong relationships, meaningful work, and connection to community are all important). But I want to distance myself from Brooks (as well as bloggers like Steve Pavlina, Gretchen Rubin, Tony Robbins, and Tim Ferriss) who approach personal happiness and life satisfaction in a “bubble” context, ignoring social and political issues as if they didn’t exist.

Too often, self-help philosophies function as a justification for right-wing ideology. Ignore the bad cards life has dealt you, and pull yourself up by your own bootstraps! Pursue your passion and beat the economic odds! Be a winner not a loser! A credo of personal accountability ties in neatly to ideals of free enterprise and anti-welfare sentiments.

In a similar vein, advocating gratitude and forgiveness as spiritual practices is usually good advice (in terms of emotional health and personal empowerment). But the same philosophy can be twisted to imply that workers should be happy with (and feel grateful for) whatever is doled out by their employers, instead of negotiating for better wages, benefits, and working conditions, or fighting against corporate crime and corruption. It’s one thing to forgive the CEO of a Wall Street company that swindled tax-payers, so you don’t have to live with hate in your heart. But it’s another thing to lie down and let them do it again.

I believe in personal accountability, the value of hard work, establishing effective habits, practicing gratitude — all the same things that the Pavlina/Rubin/Robbins/Ferriss types are pushing. But I also believe that if we truly want to live well, we should fight against the injustices that prevent others from living well.

So what are the injustices we should be fighting against? Well, for starters:

Maybe, if I’m not happy, it’s because my conscience isn’t clear. Maybe I’m not working hard enough for the right for others to get a fair shot at the pursuit of happiness. Yes, we’re all responsible for our own happiness and sense of meaning in life. But if we ignore injustice, others may not even get the chance to pursue happiness.

Call To Action

To writers, bloggers, economists, psychologists, and social scientists who are exploring the topic of happiness, here’s what I’m suggesting:

  • Don’t be a tool for corporate ideology. In the discussion of personal happiness and life meaning, don’t ignore oppression and injustice, wherever you see it.
  • Allow for the possibility that the concepts of personal accountability and social inequity/injustice can co-exist.
  • Don’t only look at happiness and life satisfaction on a personal level, but consider social and economic factors that affect us collectively, and call people to action to fight against injustice, greed, corruption, oppression, and other realities that hurt all of us.

I do understand why self-help writers want to steer clear of these topics. If you write about political issues, you potentially lose half your audience (or more). And I want to give credit to Ferriss and Robbins especially for raising money for schools, fighting poverty, etc.

But it’s delusional to think that we can *all* pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and visualize (or optimize) our way to an ideal life, when income inequality is so high, and social mobility so low, and we live in an age of rampant unchecked corporate irresponsibility.

Please share your thoughts below.

Hopsin meets Charles Murray

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On July 18

In Culture Rants/Shares

Hopsin (Marcus Hopson) who turns 27 today.

In the eighties I loved hip-hop and rap. Back then it was political (Public Enemy), spiritual/mystical (Eric B. & Rakim), or just plain fun (DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince).

Then NWA came along and things got ugly. Like every other white city kid, I listened to NWA with a mixture of shock and fascination. I even bought into the academic cultural studies line that gangster rap was a “narrative of the streets.”

While my love of hip-hop beats stuck with me (and influenced the Momu production style), the violence, materialism, and misogyny of rap turned me off, and I stopped listening.

But youth culture in America didn’t stop listening, and the “values” of gangster rap (crass materialism, ruthless individualism, objectification and hatred of women, laziness, entitlement, lack of restraint and self-discipline, personal specialness, not giving a fuck, the end justifying the means, and anti-intellectualism) somehow became the values of many young people in both suburban and urban areas (of all races). This lowest-common-denominator “youth stupidity” culture can’t be blamed entirely on gangster rap. Wall Street shares the exact same values, and these values trickle-down to our youth via advertising and reality television. Lax parenting and absentee fathers also play a role.

Independent horrorcore rapper Hopsin (Marcus Hopson) takes on youth stupidity in his latest release/music video. The track is a tight five part essay:

  • intro, where he disassociates himself from rap culture, including his own previous work
  • attack on suburban male youth stupidity culture
  • attack on suburban female youth stupidity culture
  • attack on black gangster culture (“real n*ggas”)
  • outro/call to action (earnest, which makes it a little precious, but also shows huge balls)

It’s as if Hopsin is channeling conservative commentators David Brooks or Charles Murray (The Bell Curve, Coming Apart: The State of White America). The problem, according to Hopsin, is a lack of values, poor personal decisions, and not taking responsibility for your own life. It’s a very conservative message, and doesn’t take into consideration economic injustice and inequality, racism, and the legacies of slavery and colonialism. But it’s also refreshing, especially in the context of attacking all the bullshit that makes up “hip-hop culture” (or faux hip-hop culture). Hopsin attacks the real (street gangsters) and simulated (suburban kids living out the values of street gangsters) as if they were one. It’s all the same bullshit.

Watch for yourself, if you don’t mind profanity and racial slurs. What do you think?

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