The Great American Myth: Please Don’t Leave Your Values at the Door
The past year has been challenging. While this declaration feels utterly cliche at this point, that doesn’t make it any less true.
In some ways, the challenges have been welcome. Socioeconomic groups and issues that have been on the back burner for years — or that were never given the light of day in our political discourse — are now finding their way to the forefront of debates.
Progressive measures such as Medicare for All, The Green New Deal, commonsense gun safety measures, and pay equity (just to name a few) are now garnering more attention within the United States population as pressing matters that we must deal with in the immediate future.
In a personal/professional sense, I’ve pushed myself in new ways as well. I started a podcast for my employer (I’m terrified of public speaking), interviewed for jobs above my level of expertise that would have sent me into a full-blown panic attack just a year prior, and turned down lucrative offers where the business model didn’t align with my interests.
It’s funny to think that a year ago, this fidgety human being who was laid off during a global pandemic could muster the courage and confidence to say no to a 32% pay raise to instead work for a company which turns down a massive defense contracting corporation as a client due to their own values as a business.
My rationale is not unique, though. You’ve probably guessed by now that I hold strong populist values and am left-leaning. But as I become more in-tune with my own principles and what’s important for the family I hope to one day create, I cannot shake the feeling that the “American Dream” seems to be an old-fashioned sham designed to keep our heads down and mouths shut.
If the pandemic has put anything acutely into perspective, it’s that there is far more to life than a cushy 9–5 job and kombucha on tap. For many of us young professionals who are now working remote, it’s also become clear that we can get our work done at home. And that no, we actually don’t need to separate our values from work.
Take a moment to ask yourself, what is most important to me?
What unshakable values will I intentionally not leave at the door when I commit to an opportunity, whether that’s work, social obligations, etc.? Where do I see myself placing my precious energy and being content in the future?
New polling by Data for Progress shows that an overwhelming majority of those surveyed in the United States (both democrats and republicans) believe there is something fundamentally wrong with the fact that billionaires saw their wealth rise during the pandemic that sent millions of lower and middle-class Americans into economic despair. At the same time, drug overdoses and suicide rates have increased.
If our national income inequality — created first by the 2008 financial crisis due to corrupt business practices and loopholes exploited by white collar criminals, followed by billionaires getting far richer as millions of Americans were laid off, stressed to the brink, and going bankrupt — has taught me anything, it’s this:
No one person, no matter how much they’ve achieved, should be making billions
At least, not while so many of our suppliers, distributors, and factory workers are hardly able to cover their rent and mortgages. Let alone receiving enough to support their families with good, nourishing food and access to education & development opportunities.
Let me be clear to all of those reading/listening to me shouting into the wind— you do not have to settle.
I understand that American society at large can feel like an inescapable rat race because we’ve been conditioned to take the highest pay possible, keep our deeply held beliefs to ourselves, and take that shiny title & pay raise whenever the opportunity presents itself and never look back.
But guess what? When we do look back and consider the living beings (people living in poverty, wildlife and habitats being destroyed for profit, and the list goes on) which do not have the same resources and choices as you or I, it’s clear that this shit is not working in our collective favor.
So please, don’t cut yourself in half to please anyone — whether that’s in your professional life, your social circle, or any other area where you’re investing your time and energy. The sooner we realize that our values don’t need to be left at the door in order to “get ahead”, the better off and more content we will ultimately become.