Feudalism Should Have Worked

My mom and I were recently discussing health insurance and how it used to be that people worked for their company or business for forty or fifty years and then retired with a pension and benefit package. The employees were loyal to their company and in turn, the company looked out for the employees in the benefits they received. It was a system of mutual benefit.

And yes, I know that we tend to add glossy coatings to our notions of the past. That what seems like it was wonderful still have its major flaws. But it also seems that for some reason, we have moved away from the idea that human beings should actually care about one another. Not just that you look out for friends and family and feel bad for the far off children starving in Africa.

But that you have true compassion for strangers on the street. It feels like now we all assume the worst of other people. Because a few of the people on street corners aren't actually homeless, we've painted all of them as liars and cheats. Because some people bring homelessness on themselves through really bad decisions, suddenly every homeless person has done something to severely screw up their life and this is their penance.

In medieval England, there was a system known as feudalism that most of the lords operated under. The way it worked was the vassals who lived on the lord's land worked the soil and produced crops, as well as raising animals for hie table. They provided food and labor for the noble. In return, the noble gave them a place to live, as well as protection under the laws of the land and looked out for his people.

At least, this is how it was supposed to work. With many nobles, this is how it worked. The nobles take care of their people and the people provide for the nobles. It was a mutually beneficial system. Unfortunately, as always seems to happen with humans, there were a few lords who took advantage of the system and believed they were entitled to all the benefits without having to hold up their end of the bargain.

And sadly, as a society we're in the same place know, just in a slightly different setting. Instead of nobles and peasants. we have workers and companies. Part of working for a company is that they provide you with reasonable compensation and benefits. In return you provide dutiful service and work to advance the company.

However, some companies (not all of course, but enough that it's discouraging) have decided that since they can always get new workers so they need not find ways to look out for their employees. Instead of the health insurance and other insurance plans that actually provide good coverage without making a person broke, the companies look for the cheapest deal for the company and leave their employees to cover the rest of the costs.

When did it become okay to care more about the bottom line than people? Well, in part it started because as a country we started buying imports (half the stuff we buy is made in China) rather than things made in America. As a country we realized that foreign products are cheaper and cared more about that than funneling money into our economy and supporting it.

There are no perfect answers or solutions here. Companies look for the cheapest solution because they're afraid of being outsold by their competitors overseas. People buy foreign products because sometimes they just don't have the extra money to spend one more expensive products made in America. But you also pay a little more for better quality.

So what can we do to change things? Unfortunately, a large group has to change to make a difference. But let's say that everyone bought just one thing that's American that they usually buy from overseas manufacturers. Suddenly there's a little more more in our economy, and maybe companies feel a little more secure and funnel better benefits to their employees (I'm not saying that it will happen, but it could).

But because we live in an imperfect world most likely someone will find someway to take advantage and the system will fall apart. Sadly, that's the world we live in. I didn't mean for this post to sound so morose.

So I will end with this, for every person willing to screw over someone else for there own gain, there is also a person who is willing to help someone down on their luck. There are good people in the world, you just have to find them.

And maybe someday, whatever the current version of feudalism is, will actually work the way it's meant to. We can always hope.