Poll of the Day > Do you feel you contribute to society?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Well, I design all of the infrastructure for the internet, so I guess you could say I contribute to the decline of society.

adjl posted...

Uhh, paying for subsistence also generates profit for somebody else. Often quite a bit, actually, since you can get away with charging higher margins than necessary because people don't have a choice but to pay you for them.

You don't necessarily have to pay anything or anybody to live.

TaKun782 posted...

No. Not at all. I am unable to function in society due to the fact I am mentally disabled. So therefore I cannot contribute anything to society as a functioning member of society.

You can't be unable to function in society and a functioning member of society, they're mutually exclusive.

Kyuubi4269 posted...

You don't necessarily have to pay anything or anybody to live.

Actually most people in the world find themselves in that exact situation.

I agree in the sense I dont harm it, which is kinda sad that not actively hurting us is helping

Buddyblade posted...

I agree in the sense I dont harm it, which is kinda sad that not actively hurting us is helping

if you wake up each day, take care of yourself, and dont make anyones life worse then you are doing better than most

Part of what I do is remind people examples of toxic people and not to be like them

Buddyblade posted...

Part of what I do is remind people examples of toxic people and not to be like them

thats good, keep up

Yes.

Beyond taxes which would be a trivial amount in the grand scheme of things, no. I do not try to nor have any particular interest in contributing though.

UnMead posted...

if you wake up each day, take care of yourself, and dont make anyones life worse then you are doing better than most

What if you make somebody's life worse without knowing you're doing it?

CoorsLight posted...

"Contribute to society" is a dumb capitalist idea, everyone has intrinsic human worth regardless of what they "contribute".

Uhh, that's necessary for all forms of government, you can't just have all your people laying around doing nothing.

Muscles posted...

Uhh, that's necessary for all forms of government, you can't just have all your people laying around doing nothing.

I wouldn't say necessary for "government" in particular....the right word is probably "communities". For most of human history effort was necessary for survival, so it didn't need to be policed. Natural selection and all. Modern humans have communities which make for pleasant living conditions and offer some support to those who can't work, but yes: it still needs to be understood that effort is expected of anyone who wants to live in a community and is able to help...otherwise it can't be maintained.

I vote Democratic 100% of the time, but they start to lose me when they imply that effort/skill should be more or less irrelevant in today's society. (They don't say that directly, but it's not a large leap) There are reasons that effort/skill can't be applied by some people, certainly, and we need to help them/address that: but effort is still the foundation of society.

People naturally deserve not to be abused and to be treated respectfully, but I would not say that everyone naturally deserves to be respected: there's an important difference there. In our modern society I believe we can certainly afford to provide people with a basic living standard, but we shouldn't go communist and pretend that we could have a society where everyone is rewarded the same regardless of skill/effort.

In the big picture we are in a decadent period where we are happy to largely live off the effort of past generations. That is not the fault of one class/tribe of people, as our politics would like to believe. It is going to take a large threat to our way of life to kick us out of this. Something much larger than COVID. Significant war, great depression, etc.

Considering the obscene amount of taxes I pay, I sometimes wonder if I'm carrying society.

adjl posted...

More or less. I work for the government, so there are several layers of bureaucracy between me and the actual impact of what my department does, which makes it feel less rewarding, but it's important work and I feel like I make a meaningful contribution to those that I directly work with/for, so that's fun.

I always wondered why you so ardently advocated statism.

hockey7318 posted...

Damn, I'd say your work definitely makes a difference

Considering recent scandals, I'd say that Canadian government has made a LOT of difference when it comes to the First Nations... and most of it very negative.

Entity13 posted...

even my parents took part in the scam known as the modern workforce;

Oh lawdy.

wpot posted...

I wouldn't say necessary for "government" in particular....the right word is probably "communities". For most of human history effort was necessary for survival, so it didn't need to be policed.

For most of human history people would capture strangers to work the farms because survival is necessary but unpleasant. what defines valuable communities is whether or not they are organised in a way that is efficient enough that survival wasn't hellish. The group that defines the organisational structure is the government, whether that's monarchs, bureaucrats or your mum.

A community without government was either broken, cruel or both.

Sorta. My job is essential to our society. The alternatives would be let crime run rampant or vigilante justice.

I feel like I contribute with my job but where I truly feel the impact of my contribution is playing music. I play in a solid band with a decent following and it feels good playing in other cities and seeing people I don't know come out to shows with our merch saying how much they love our music

Actually, a musician in one of my favorite bands since high school posted a video on Facebook the other day wearing our hat. That was one of the coolest moments in my life

Kyuubi4269 posted...

A community without government was either broken, cruel or both.

I wasn't saying that governments don't have their place. I was saying that the social contract of "you need to chip in if you want to benefit from the work of others" is bigger than governments and applies to more or less any group of people that live together.

Yeah... I contribute with music culture in the form of my band and sometimes myself as a solo artist.. this is a small town in Norway, only about 10 000 people live here on the coast...

Sometimes you inspire children, young people and adults through song...

Sometimes even enough that they start to study different instruments and how to sing themselves...

I do it for free and that's all I need in life right now...

I've talked a few people out literally destroying their lives, so I'd say that I've done more than most people alive with even a modicum of political power.