The Privilege of Progress: Why Not Everyone Gets to Enjoy the Future
The world is better than it’s ever been, but we’re not all lucky enough to take advantage of it
By some measures, the world is better than ever. Technology allows us to do fantastic things like talking to people on the other side of the world and looking at pictures of cute cats on demand. We can do surgery with robots and create effective vaccines for new diseases within a year. Marvel movies are a thing that exist.
Generally speaking, things are improving in just about every area. From how we work to how we drive to how we eat, people are driving progress forward every day. Objectively, the world is improving by leaps and bounds with every passing week.
And yet, it all feels very tenuous for a lot of us. Medicine is better than ever, but my meds cost me $200 a month with insurance. Without insurance, they cost me around $1,600 a month. American medicine is some of the best and most advanced in the world, but if I get cancer, I run the risk of losing everything in my life thanks to six or seven-figure medical bills. Again, that’s with insurance.
Space travel is also becoming more available and accessible, but only if you’re wealthy and connected. If we’re lucky, this technology will improve the world and make space travel accessible to everyone. If we’re not, the billionaire man-children who are driving this progress will keep it to themselves.
The job market is also improving in a lot of ways. Despite the active push against raising the minimum wage, which hasn’t gone up since 2009, many employers are offering wages in the low-to-mid teens or higher to simply attract employees. By all accounts, there are plenty of jobs right now and wages are going up to attract talent.
However, the jobs that are offering these wages are largely customer-facing retail and food service jobs, which are often difficult and unforgiving. Corporate policies in America are based on high employee turnover as opposed to retaining good employees, though, so managers are often more likely to discipline employees than stand up for them. The customer is always right, after all.
Dealing with difficult customers who like abusing people they feel are beneath them isn’t worth the money for many when a manager isn’t likely to support them. And, in the current pandemic times, the “front-line heroes” we once championed are now facing backlash for not wanting to serve maskless and abusive people intent on acting juvenile.
Yes, things are improving in the world. From computers to travel to job availability and wages, things are getting better. Unfortunately, a lot of us won’t get to enjoy it. Honestly, the majority of Americans are a couple of missed paychecks or a medical emergency away from total ruin.
Even those of us who are lucky enough to have high-paying professional jobs — lawyers, doctors, and finance people — aren’t immune. Having a six-figure job won’t save you from disability when you don’t have the income to pay your six-figure medical bills.
I saw someone suggest that anyone who feels like the world is on fire is too absorbed in their own lives and wrapped up in the moment to notice that things are better than they’ve ever been. Honestly, being able to look up from our work and the daily effort of supporting ourselves is a privilege that many of us don’t get to enjoy.
The majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Their energies are largely focused on making enough money to get by. Yes, the world is getting better every day, but they don’t get to enjoy it. Instead, they are focused simply on surviving.
I have heard stories of schools in low-income neighborhoods at the start of the pandemic that were desperately trying to get technology to families so their kids could attend virtual classes. For many of these families, the internet was a luxury that they could not afford and computers that could access their kids’ classes were out of reach.
For families like these, the march of progress is leaving them behind. They don’t have the luxury of enjoying the fruits of new technologies because their focus is on survival. Yes, that progress enables them to survive in many cases, but for a family below the poverty line, it’s hard to appreciate electric busses when the public transit system that they’re a part of is still shoddy and unreliable.
Once again, I need to acknowledge my privilege here, since I can spend part of my morning before work — in my dining room, no less — writing a breathy think-piece on progress. I can take the time to examine a comment on progress, do a bit of research, and explain why I think the comment is wrong, or at least misguided.
I don’t have to make sure I’m up before sunrise to get ready for work, then spend two hours on public transit to get to my first job in my 18-hour workday. Because of my job, I can roll out of bed 20 minutes after my alarm went off, eat breakfast, then walk 10 feet to my computer and write about something that bugs me about the world.
I am lucky enough to have savings, minimal debt, a house, and a car. I can take vacations without worrying too much about where the money will come from. Even though I do what I can to make my dollars stretch, my family is not hurting.
And yet, I never feel like we’re completely safe. The march of progress is enabling me and my family to keep moving ever forward, but one stumble and we’ll be left behind like so many others. I am privileged to be able to keep up, but luck is a fickle thing, and I may not be able to do so tomorrow.
If you are lucky enough to enjoy the fruits of the future, I am happy for you. Whether through work, privilege, dumb luck, or some combination of those three, you have found yourself in a position to enjoy the march of progress from your luxury sedan. Here’s hoping you don’t get a flat along the way.
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