We All Must Give What We Can
Solving our greatest problems requires everyone to contribute from their own unique strengths—and everyone to accept the help and correction they need. Those struggling can't opt out of society and expect miracles. Those thriving can't hoard resources and expect a stable future for themselves and their progeny.
Walt Disney's "Donald Duck" featured Gyro Gearloose, an eccentric inventor whose brilliance was matched only by his obliviousness to consequences. The humor came from his disconnection.
Today's Gyro Gearlooses walk among us, no longer cartoon characters. They build social media platforms that drive children to suicide. They enable genocide in Myanmar. They sell fossil fuels while destabilizing the climate. Brilliant, yes—but dangerously disconnected from the human costs of their creations.
Worse, they're enabled by modern Scrooge McDucks who profit from Gyro's inventions and use their wealth to fund legislators who ensure that neither faces accountability. These legislators passed tax cuts for the wealthy, promising that enriching "job creators" would lift everyone. It has done the opposite.
Here's what must change:
Those of us with means should pay our fair share in taxes and invest only in companies that serve the common good. Focusing on shareholder returns is destroying our planet.
Those of us in the middle should study our ballots carefully, voting for competence over showmanship and the common good over narrow self-interest.
Those of us who are struggling must remember we're needed as much as we need others. When we're in a hole, the answer is to stop digging and accept the ladder being offered.
We're all in this together—Gyro, Scrooge, and everyone else. We all need each other. No one gets to opt out while expecting society to bear the costs of their choices.