Part of the System

I'm not a fan of politics. I don't watch the news, so it's hard to have an informed opinion.

And besides, as of five years ago, apparently news can be fake.

So, perhaps my refusal to turn the news on has given me an advantage in the mental health department.

(Maybe...)

But, there's one argument that's always fascinated me. Around health care and college.

Particularly around the fact that other countries give their citizens free health care and free college. So why don't we?

Democrats and republicans get pretty heated over this, so I don't bring it up often.

But, here's what's interesting.

Yes, other countries offer health care and a college education to their people. But, someone's gotta pay for it, right? If you look closer, the tax rates of these countries are upwards of 40 or even 50 percent!

That's double what most of us pay in taxes.  It's true what they say...nothing is truly "free."

Here's what's even more interesting. The folks who want free health care and college don't seem to care about that. From my experience, the argument is dodged, ignored, or walked away from.

But think about it. People would prefer to pay more for benefits in the form of taxes rather than pay for the benefits out of pocket themselves.

Why is that?

Because it's part of a system.

Employees are part of a similar system where taxes are automatically taken out of the paycheck. Think it would go over as well if people had to hand the cash to a government worker on the way out of work on Friday?

Some people cling to jobs they despise for benefits that come out to maybe $500 a month. When they could easily make double the annual income striking out on their own and just pay for the benefits themselves.

School is another system. There are some amazing, life-changing teachers out there.

But there are other teachers whose work and behavior would never be tolerated outside of a school setting.

Yet kids do the assignments without question, no matter how absurd they may be. And they'll gladly lose sleep to get them completed.

Again, it's a system we've grown up with that's become normal. 

But...

What if we could hijack our tendency to follow predesigned systems and create our own systems?

Create our own "normal?"

What if we define our values first? And then decide on the systems that fit those the best?

What kinds of possibilities would that open?

The possibilities of creating our own routines, our own schooling, our own financial wellness, and our own physical and mental well-being? Without relying on everything that came before.

There's no right or wrong answer.

The question is whether we have the critical thinking skills to understand which systems we've signed up for.

To decide if we're happy with that.

Or if we need to make a change.

The decision is ours for the making.