Today I went to the mom and pop corner store by foot. One of the ten thousand corner stores in Mexico. The one that is closest to my house. Not one of the five thousand 7-eleven stores we have in every mid-to-big sized cities in Mexico, which are very conveniently placed on the opposite corner of the mom and pop corner stores. I try to support the small businesses, I always have and always will, despite being a corpo slave for Walmart for years half a decade ago.
Anyway, I went by foot because I decided so, not because I was forced because I don't have a car. I went to the corner store because I preferred the convenience that comes with a higher price instead of the cheap price that comes with farther distances. I chose to go there myself on a random Saturday morning because I had the time because I don't have to work on this day, unlike 90% of my country's population.
I left the store, savoring the recently bought salsa for my morning eggs and thinking about a new branding idea I've been playing with, and I stumbled upon an old man. This 55 year old man was dressed formally, but with worn out clothes and shows that saw their golden days 15 years ago. He stood proud of who he was while being fully aware of his situation: He was waiting for the bus, the transport way of the lower Mexican class, and only the lower class, preparing to start his one hour commute to work for 10 hours straight on a dead end job that barely pays the bills and remind him how shitty is his boss, how much he hates his life, and how unfair socioeconomic classes are in the 3rd world.
Of course he doesn't understand anything about socioeconomic factors in the 3rd world, and how the Mexican lower class or the proletariat as Marx would refer to, is so different to the proletariat in Germany. He just knows that being just above the poverty line in Mexico is probably the worst hand he could've gotten. It would've been better to be born in a marginal neighborhood or up in the mountain where people have no concept of money, but if they had they would know they were born, would live, and would die pennyless.
His life is a constant struggle, and he's never getting out of the rat race. He doesn't even know he's the main power source of the rat race. He's not even a rat, he's the food for the actual rats. And yet, he has a family and has something to live for. He wakes up every morning, finds energy God knows where, and battles through routinary, endless days that will continue his life cycle until he is not able to go to work, and he ends up being a burden for his children that may be able to support him. Odds are, he will die in misery, leaving a wife that has no way of supporting herself that will in turn become a burden for her children. She might has a better outcome though, because in Mexico, the mother is the most sacred person, both for men and women, so she might make it til she's eighty years old.
I am not a communist. God forgive that. I am not even catholic, I just mention God because of routine. I am not a fan of open capitalism but I sure as hell would rather die standing than to live in a socialist state. I like meritocracy, but I understand that there are systemic disadvantages that render meritocracy obsolete.
Equality of opportunities, not equality of outcome. That's the idea, at least in paper, that I subscribe to.
I am up for small government, but I don't think there should be no government. But that government should not rule anything bigger than a small city, perhaps not even a town too big where two degrees of separation is not a thing.
I have no idea if that term exists. I know that the term six degrees of separation exists. If you don't know what that is, google it. Well no, duckduckgo it, do yourself a favor and never again use google.
But either way, meritocracy. I've been the biggest supporter of meritocracy since I am 12 years old, but perhaps I only support this form of self governance because I was born in a privileged position, I was able to develop my skills, nurture my intelligence, and enjoy the money my parents made. Perhaps I would be more of a socialist and less of a meritocratic person had I been born in the Mexican slums, which are called lost cities, where not even the police dares to enter unless a high profile murder happens.
Which takes me back to equality of opportunities, never equality of outcome.
Up to what point is this equality a feasible one in the third world?
In Germany or Norway this equality of opportunities might be real, but in Mexico, it is nonexistent.
There is an organic disadvantage in the current third world societies, and this will never stop being the biggest factor that determines the inequality of outcome for every lower class citizen.
But that is a matter I will discuss in my next post, hopefully tomorrow.
