Poverty is in captivity - or does a person need a lot of good?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

One of the main problems in Putin's direct line was the problem of poverty. There is a lot of talk about this now both in kitchens and in the media.

For me, all these conversations leave the impression of a fundamental misunderstanding, a misunderstanding of something essential that can present a picture in a different light. I will try at least to approach this important problem.

First of all, you need to understand: poverty is not so much an objective state as a feeling. I remember that on an excursion in some castle in the Czech Republic, the guide said that in the wardrobe of the owner of this castle, princess or duchess, there were … 6 dresses. Today every auntie has these clothes in bulk. It is clear that centuries have passed, progress has not stood still, but still pay attention to this fact. It testifies to the relativity of the concept of poverty-wealth. The princess was rich in six dresses, and the simple present citizen is poor in thirty-six. Okay, the princess is something distant. But historically close, from my childhood.

Tula, 60s. My grandmother, an elementary school teacher, lived in a log cabin with stove heating and a water pump. Her salary was small: teachers were never paid much. But she felt her life was abundant and beautiful. Still: her house, a large garden with flowers, raspberries and apples, her favorite business, everyone respects her, even entrusted her to teach young teachers her craft. Her daughter became an engineer, her son-in-law became the director of an important plant.

She knew how to do everything: sew, knit, grow flowers. Even apples are stored underground until spring: for the last apples I climbed into a scary dungeon during spring break. I remember how my mother and I were once traveling by train from the south at the very end of August, and my grandmother brought a huge bouquet to the carriage, intended for me to school by the first of September. I divided it and distributed it in parts to my friends. If someone had told my grandmother that she was poor, and even more so “beggar”, she would not have rejected it with anger - she simply would not have understood.

It turns out that with objectively the same material content of life, you can be poor, or you can be quite well-off. So the criterion of the World Bank, which declared living on $ 2 a day as absolute poverty, is too simplistic.

It is important - where to live? What kind of organization of life?

In general, there are two completely different styles of poverty - socialist poverty and capitalist poverty. Socialist poverty is an ascetic life, but organized, well-adjusted. And cultural. I saw an ad in Havana: a mechanical technician is required, a salary of 350 pesos a month - that's about $ 18. But not far away, I read another announcement: youth and teenagers are invited to study theatrical art. An accompanying Cuban said that such classes are very common and, of course, free. So it was in the USSR after the war: bread is rationed, but the workers go to the opera and teach their children in a music school.

With capitalist poverty, this is impossible. The real bottom is forming there: illiteracy, homelessness, social diseases like tuberculosis.

In our cold country, whose total social product has always been lower than in rich countries, we cannot achieve capitalist wealth. Basically, by virtue of things. But we can very well achieve capitalist poverty. This means that you need to organize life differently. Not looking for new words - socialistically.

The basic goods need to be shared equally. And for this there is a universal obligation to work for all healthy adults. For those who cannot or do not want to find a job - organize community service. In our country, without the principle "who does not work, he does not eat" - it does not work.

It is very important, maybe even paramount, to put aside the cult of wealth. Yes, we need to create new goods and values. But at the same time, consider and instill in the minds that wealth is not the main thing. The religion of enrichment that has taken over the minds and hearts of America is not good for us. Meanwhile, today the most unbridled religion of mammonism is being promoted in our country, and the quality of life is reduced to the provision of square meters and electronic gadgets. In order not to feel poor and even destitute, people should not associate their self-esteem with property. Unfortunately, today we are - connecting, i.e. our mass consciousness is bourgeois through and through.

Obviously, not only the cult of wealth should be appeased, but also the material side of life should be influenced - not to allow property stratification, which is offensive to the poor. It is important to remember that the “dispossession” of oligarchs and other rich people by itself will not enrich the poor; this measure should be among many others. “The destruction of the rich does not make the poor richer, but they feel less poor,” V. Klyuchevsky once remarked with shrewd irony.

You need to understand: by giving out money, adding benefits, you cannot get rid of poverty - it will overtake. You need to reformat your whole life.