Are you struggling with a problem in your life that feels out of your control? If only I were a stronger person, you think, then this wouldn’t be a problem. Because of the American value of individualism, we tend to think people are completely responsible for their situations. But pick any one of your problems, and surely there are thousands if not millions of other people across the nation dealing with the same struggle. That’s because these issues are societal in nature, not merely problems of individual character. While we all must deal with our personal struggles, the ultimate solutions lie beyond ourselves.
Let’s consider something that everyone struggles with -- money. Maybe you’re working an extra job just to afford to go on a family vacation or to eat out with friends once a week. Whatever the case, when you work as much as you can handle and still don’t have enough money, you feel like there’s something wrong with you, as if you’re not good enough to make more money.
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But this problem is not your own. In fact, 44.3 percent of impoverished people work full time, yet economic mobility has declined. If you feel hopeless and trapped where you are, realize that the changes in the economy affect everyone else as well. It’s not your fault if you can’t afford a master’s degree or land a lucrative career as an orthodontist. While you should work your hardest to raise your income, the ultimate solution lies beyond you.
Besides never having enough money, there is also never enough time. You have work or school (or both), meetings to attend, papers to write, friends and family to spend time with, and you need to get enough sleep and exercise. Succeeding in all of these only seems possible for a superhuman. And when you don’t get everything done, you feel like you can’t keep your life together. But maybe it has something to do with the fact that work time in the US has increased 15 percent while leisure time has decreased 33 percent in the last 20 years.
Since this problem affects everyone, it can’t be all your fault. You didn’t decide that people should work longer, nor did you decide to make it a social norm to say “yes” to favors and social engagements. And you probably didn’t invent distracting social media apps that make your phone vibrate every 15 minutes. While you should learn to manage your time amidst the chaos as best you can, the ultimate solution lies beyond you.
People deal with the same struggles throughout the nation. While “I blame society” is often a cop-out answer to personal problem, dismissing societal issues as character flaws is an even bigger cop out because it undermines the more important task at hand -- seeking societal solutions. It’s easy to blame people for laziness or stupidity, but it is much more difficult and much more productive to engage in thoughtful discussion of large-scale reform. Since we belong to society, we must work together to restructure it so that it works better for all of us.
