The Importance of Human Collaboration

I suppose my central theory I'm working with is that human connection, collaboration and caring is
essential to our survival at pretty much every level - economic, emotional, psychological, sociological,
interpersonal, etc.
What I believe is that we have an incredible potential to make life better and easier for ourselves and
everybody else if we live more connected and collaborative lives. We can transition out of our
obsession over money, our seemingly out of control economic system. We overlook the human and
social capital right under our fingertips, available to us in our ability to relate, connect, and help each
other out. Poverty, crime, stress, neglect, conflict, etc all can be tackled when we make life simpler and
more long-term stable for each other, rather than base our actions/habits off such short-term interests.
Perhaps there's something futile in the mentality of constant growth, of corporations growing so large
that they aim to make as much money as possible, only to face somebody, somewhere else often
overseas! outdoing us, undercutting us, and making our own economic industries cave in on itself. We
take pride in the ideas of progress and change, but perhaps what we really need is a sense of simplicity
and 'good enough' that can last through generations to come, where the people who can't keep up with
new inventions and technologies aren't discarded into the new poverty class.
It's pretty apparent with the struggles we've faced in the last century, with various food and oil
shortages, the "reat #epression, the short lived prosperity of the $%'s and &%'s, the downturn of the '%'s
and (%'s and abandonment of our manufacturing industries, the up-swing of technology in the )%'s and
first decade of the *+st century, and then back again to our slump with foreclosures and unemployment
at record highs.
,he underlying problem I see is that everything we've believed in has based itself on the idea of
growth. Profit. -ccruing more money than there was before, accumulating more money than what other
people have. Where does this lead to but a reckless competition to choose sides between poverty and
affluence.
It would seem that we can't base solutions off change, progress, growth, globali/ation, free market
economics, etc. ,he poor have gotten poorer and the rich have gotten richer. People lose their houses
and the bankers get bailed out. ,o save a buck, we shop at Wal-0art where employees are paid awful
wages and can't afford health care, while the Waltons sit among the richest people in the world.
1omething about the poorest people working for the richest people doesn't sit well with me.
We work, we consume, we sleep, repeat. We try harder. We push our children harder. Women have
2oined the workforce doubling it! and computers have radically improved worker efficiency, and yet
still things are seemingly on the decline. -bout the only industries that are making it are information
technology and healthcare. 3nfortunately, technology becomes a double edged sword where it profits
companies with less people, and healthcare becomes profitable and selective, with present day costs!
as we struggle in our poisoned, stressful and disconnected world. 4ne has to start 5uestioning the
whole process.
I'd like to believe that things can change if we alter how we relate to each other. 6urrently we follow
such a rigid hierarchical lifestyle, where ideas, money, change, etc come from the top down - where we
depend upon a large employer for our sole income, or federally-determined educational policy to shape
our local schools and children's education, or billion dollar food and agricultural companies who decide
what goes into our food. - small percentage of people make all the rules or determine who gets a slice
of the pie. With that, mistakes become astronomical in conse5uence.
4ur financial compensation and prosperity depends upon the discretion of several if not countless
people between ourselves and our consumers - and it's pretty clear that often shareholders and
e7ecutives get dibs first.
I'd like to believe it's possible to depend upon each other in less of a top-down fashion and more of a
collaborative fashion. We can work closer to consumers so our products are higher 5uality and we get
paid better salaries. We can be our own employers so we never have to fear our cities becoming a
deindustriali/ed economic ghost town of despair and hopelessness.
6urrently we live very materialistic, independent and disconnected lives where we value things and
money more than human relationships. 0aybe by not having or needing so much stuff, then we can
make room for the 5uality of life that everyone deserves, so we stop living such competitive and
scarcity-driven lives.
......