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(Episode previously named “Money”)
In this episode, Dani questions money in US culture & talks about capitalism.
For links & recommendation, view the full episode notes.
Dani is honest and refreshing in her takes on the world and society. Listen as she explains how she’s come to understand the world through kindness, both towards ourselves and everything else.
[0:00] Hello there everyone! Welcome to Understanding Kindness; my name is Dani. Today we’ll be talking about money, and we’ll discuss a bit on capitalism and competition as well. I’m highlighting Bitchy Shitshow [channel no longer available] on YouTube today. Their video, “Intellectual Property as A Leftist” , gave me the idea for this episode, as well as a recent trip to Chicago. So, without further ado, welcome to this episode of Understanding Kindness.
[0:30] (Theme).
[0:37] So let’s start off with this Bitchy Shitshow video first. Nic and Callie were answering a listener question about selling ideas and programs that an individual has created to people, organizations, companies, all while being a leftist and generally disapproving of property in general.
[0:59] I’ll go off on a little tangent here to explain the disapproval of property. Hopefully I can be frank. Since everything on this Earth was here before us and will definitely be here after us, we can never really own it. The idea that something is yours because you gave someone some paper that we place value on and said “this is mine now” literally is not real. Once we’re gone, that thing will just be. Alone, on its own, not being owned by anyone (*gasp* Oh my god, the horror). Ownership and property are concepts that we as human beings made up in our minds. There are many, many other ways to do things. I may not have all the answers myself, but there are people who live in other ways and even more still who have thought of alternate ways to live. Maybe we should listen to some of them for a change, huh?
[2:04] Alright, back to the video. Now, the question being answered in this video is specifically about intellectual property, which is even dumber so allow me to go on a tangent about that as well!
[2:17] How can you own something that you cannot see? It’s impossible. That’s why no one owns air. Sure, people and companies can go on destroying that with no second thoughts as to the consequences, but I digress. Just the fact that people are literally trying to own your thoughts is so gross and capitalistic. The act of “owning” an idea or thought is just another way to get money. If you own, say the phrase “that’s hot”, now anytime someone publicly says those words together without your permission, you can sue them for money, or they can pay you beforehand to say them publicly. So, before this person claimed, “I now own the phrase ‘that’s hot’ because I paid someone the monies” literally anyone could go around publicly or privately saying “that’s hot”, but now just because that person bought it you have to pay them to use it publicly. What? That’s so dumb. And you can think about how this could be used to censor what’s said publicly. If the phrase were something more like, “we live in a fascist society”, and some activists without money were trying to produce public content and cannot afford to pay for the rights to say this phrase, they are being censored by this pay wall. Now this hasn’t happened to my knowledge, but the fact that it’s possible is scary enough, don’t you think?
[3:54] Okay, let us continue with the video. The two discuss attribution, saying it needs to happen because we currently live in a society that commodifies ideas, and Nichole specifically says “charge people who have money for your ideas and creations”. Of course the ideal is that there is no ownership of ideas, but there is attribution to where you learned something or got the idea for something from (like I do here). Callie put is nicely saying, “We need to balance the scales first before we completely dismantle”, which actually goes for most things in this society, but just we’re gonna try to keep focusing on this one topic. So! this all brings me to the idea for this episode. I don’t remember what this was specifically in reference to, but Callie said to always “find the money”.
[4:46] I’ve been thinking about this a lot the past year or so, but even more lately because of what Callie said in that episode. “Find the money.” I began talking with Jorge about this idea more and more. We took a trip to Chicago one day and decided to walk along the river. It was a pretty nice day, only a little windy and we ended up sitting on some big steps across the river from some cute little restaurants with outdoor seating and pretty lights. As we were just enjoying the air and each other’s company, a couple that had just been married came over and started taking their wedding pictures not far from us. The bride was wearing a huge princess-y type dress and looked beautiful. However, having looked at them and seeing that very expensive dress, I couldn’t help thinking how wasteful this whole day of theirs is. I’m not sure exactly how expensive this particular dress was, but I do know (according to insider.com) that the average cost of a wedding dress in the US in 2019 was about $1,513. Just for the dress. How many times are ya gonna wear it? Once. Where is it going after the wedding day? Probably in your closet to never be worn again. What? Why? And this is just the dress! The average cost of a whole wedding in the US last year was about $29,137 (according to theknot.com)! Woooooow. That’s more than half my student loans blown on one day, all for a party and a piece of paper that gives y’all a tax break. Even worse! people believe this to be the best day of their lives. Woooooooow again. So, is the rest of your life with this person just going to be downhill from here? This stressful, albeit exciting, day is the best of your life? Dude. I have better days sitting on my couch in my pjs next to my best friend on a Tuesday afternoon. I don’t have to worry about what I look like, being anywhere on time, 80+ people to feed and entertain. Way better in my opinion. You do you though, I guess. Who knows, that could’ve been the start of the best time of this couple’s life together?
[7:03] So these people that we were seeing, and many, many others in the country were spending almost $30,000 on one day. Think of how profitable this industry is! Think of how much they are selling people this idea of a fairy tale wedding. While looking up these averages I saw an article with the words “How Much You Should Spend” in the title. The article detailed average prices of engagement rings, wedding bands, and told readers just how much is acceptable to spend on these rings. My qualm with the article is the use of the word “should”. Why is there a price that most people should be spending? Why does it matter how much a person spends on something? Shouldn’t it matter how much of our time and love we share with the person, and how much of their time and love they share with us? This article is advertising for the wedding industry. That bride’s dress and the whole wedding itself is an ad for the wedding industry. Again, with those damn ads. They really are everywhere. Found the money!
[8:12] After this couple had finished taking their pictures and walked to, I’m assuming, their reception, we began looking more closely at the restaurants across the water. They looked really cute, with these little tables and chairs pushed up against the railing by the river, and lights strung up between the tables. It was picturesque. In fact, we saw diners there taking selfies with the river in the background. Jorge and I chatted about how they were probably taking those pictures to upload to social media. In that moment, when they were taking pictures of themselves to post on social media for others to see, they were not living in that moment. That moment was not for them, it was for others to witness. It was also for the restaurant they were dining at. Once they post that cute picture to social media, the restaurant has now gotten free marketing from them. Others will see those pictures and wonder where this cute place is and end up going there themselves to get similar pictures to post to social media. It’s a cycle and it’s everywhere and they’re using it without you even being aware, let alone paid! In fact, you’re paying them! Almost every place along the river looked like a photo op. All of it advertising. Found the money!
[9:29] As we continued to sit, we watched as one tour boat after the next floated by less than a third full with no more than 30 passengers on each one. We began to ponder how much of an affect each boat had on the water and the air. We couldn’t calculate exactly how much, but imagined it to be a lot considering these weren’t sail boats. How much could it really cost to run one of those things though? They’ve at least got to pay for the gas, the driver, the employee giving the tour, the licensing, the ticket-er, the actual boat, and who knows what else. There’s no way they’re charging enough for each ticket to actually cover the real cost of all of these things. Let alone the cost on the environment. Each of these boats, each from a different company, none of them close to being full, running back and forth along the river for hours and hours almost (I’m assuming) every day. Think of how wasteful and damaging all of that oil and smog is. What would be so bad if the city of Chicago just had one tour boat that ran once a day (maybe at the most beautiful time of the day) or whenever it was full? I, personally, would much rather my tax dollars go to something like that than towards the stock market.
[10:46] Jorge and I tinkered with this a little more. Imagine how big a boat is, how many materials are used to create this boat, how many elements must be mined from the Earth, then created into a discernible object used to build a boat. Now imagine the labor needed to do all these things. Do you really think everyone in the process is being paid an ethical wage to help create this boat? Now if we converted the damage that creating and running the boat does on the environment, or to the communities whose backyards are destroyed to mine these materials, if we convert that to actual, physical money, no one would ever be able to afford an actual boat. You cannot put an actual cost on the environment and people’s communities, people’s homes, people’s lives. Is the actual cost of all of these tour boat companies competing with each other and being forced to run their boats at half capacity worth it in the end? Do we need seven different companies running up and down the river polluting both it and the air all day, everyday? No, we do not.
[11:56] Now, let’s find that money. Obviously each company is competing with the others. This competition influences pricing and quality. If the tour companies need to make money to continue staying in business because they have to pay their employees and pay to run and dock the boat, they need to continue giving tours. In the times of this global pandemic, not many people are looking to go on a boat tour of Chicago right now (I mean, even in not-COVID times). But alas, the tour companies still need to pay to keep running so they must run their tours for the few people that have purchased tickets. I understand that the tours may have a capacity to them currently, but even so maybe less polluting boats should be used or just less companies available to pollute the water and air. And we haven’t even talked about profits! That’s really what the tour companies are looking for. They’re looking to make lots a da money. Oh and not for those actually doing the labor, but for the person whose idea it was to start a tour boat company and who had enough capital to create a business from scratch. Why is this a thing that we say is okay? The city should have the responsibility of protecting the river, the air, and its citizens. The competition that each company must engage in to continue running, and to continue feeding the hungry greed of those at the top, is ruining our environment and frankly our lives. This need to get more and more money is ruining our environment and our lives. However, we’ve found that sweet, sweet money.
[13:34] This world is not ours to do what we please with. Our lives are though. We should be able to do what we please with our lives and our bodies. We should be fully informed, fully consenting, and fully aware of our choices, both for ourselves and the world around us. Make sure that however you choose to be with a partner, it is how you both agree to be, without outside interruption and influence. Do it for you. Make sure your choices of where to go are based on things you want to do, places you want to go, not based on ads or FOMO. Do it for you. Make sure to learn about ways you can improve your community and about better approaches and alternatives to our current ways of life. Do it for you, and do it for all of us.
[14:27] I want you to think about what you’re doing, who you’re doing it for, and who is affected by your choices. If the answers to those questions don’t feel good to you, then don’t make that choice. If the answers make you feel good and make others feel good you’re getting close. You’re there if your answers reflect total liberation and anti-oppression of all. Think about your choices. We are completely capable of that and we should be doing it constantly. We can make better decisions. We can create a different society. We all deserve better than this.
[15:09] You can listen to more episodes of Understanding Kindness on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or by visiting feeds.transistor.fm/understanding-kindness. Transistor is spelled t-r-a-n-s-i-s-t-o-r. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode!
[15:29] Now, I’ve got some bonus recommendations for y’all today! The first is again from the Witch, Please podcast. This episode, titled “Animals” discusses the animals in the series, and specifically analyzes the dichotomy of human and non-human, and which category different magical creatures fall into (OoOooooO). My next bonus recommendation this week is episode 6 of Another Round, titled “Lit Like Bic”. Another Round is a podcast that I found recently and have been trying to catch up on. It’s a comedy/pop culture show by two BuzzFeed writers, Heben and Tracy. This episode with Desus Nice is just {*kissing sound*} chef’s kiss. Highly funny, highly recommended. The episode of Unlocking Us with Sonya Renee Taylor is beautiful. In the episode, Brené and Sonya discuss radical self-love and how to deconstruct the system by understanding it. And finally, “Trust the Process” is a video by ThoughtSlime on YouTube basically about going along with something just because everyone does and that’s been deemed “the thing to do”. Very good, very recommend.
[16:43] If you enjoyed this episode, help support the podcast! All this content is free and I’d love to make it my job one day, so if you’re financially able join our patreon or send a one-time or recurring donation through paypal! You can also share an episode with family or friends, and give UK a kind rating and review!
Check out UnderstandingKindness.com for all episodes, transcripts, and blog posts. And why not take a listen to my other podcast, Better When Awkward, co-hosted by my childhood best friend Jasmine!
Get in touch with me by emailing UnderstandingKindness@protonmail.com, or through social media. You can find all links in the episode notes.
For now, be kind, be compassionate, be understanding, and question everything. I’ll be here. Thank you for listening to this episode of Understanding Kindness. [End transcript]