Hi K M! Thanks SO much for this interesting response and your questions. I’m in Spain now and it’s 2 a.m. but I read your comment before I tried to go to sleep and have been lying here thinking about how I’d respond… so here goes!
I think if I’d received the $70k in annual chunks, it would have been a very different experience and I would have learned different things. I should mention at this point — which seemed too complicated to explain in the story I posted — that I actually have been receiving the amount in pieces, because it’s coming as a gift from my brother and his wife, and there are tax considerations for them. So I received $30k in the fall of 2018, $30 early in 2019, and I’ll get $10 early in 2020. It’s very possible that if I already had that last $10k, I would have spend into it already.
I’ll tell you, before I found out the actual amount, the highest number I fantasized about was $10,000, and one of my thoughts was that I could live on that much for a whole year without working, if I were really frugal. So when I heard $70, one of my first thoughts was that I could live for SEVEN YEARS without working, if I wanted to! I didn’t take that option seriously, but now (again, hindsight), I don’t think it would have been a terrible idea. Without freelance work keeping me busy, I probably would have started writing for Medium much sooner, because I would have had so much time on my hands, and by now I might be one of those people who are making a fantastic income from it!
But with $10k per year, I think I would probably have reduced my freelance work somewhat, spent a little more on accommodations and tuktuks, added in a few “treats,” and tried to still have a bit in savings by the end of the year. I imagine I would have still spent most of the year in Southeast Asia, instead of bopping all over the place. So it would have been my regular life with enhancements, instead of big changes. It would have been fascinating to see from year to year how my life changed, and how the choices I made changed. It feels like that would have been a more loving (nurturing/teaching) way for me to receive the money, you know? Smaller steps.
But then, I probably wouldn’t have taken ballet lessons in Paris and pole dancing lessons in New York, which were incredibly challenging and transforming experiences for me (I’ll write about them one of these days). I also probably wouldn’t have started writing for Medium, because I wouldn’t have felt I had the time. And Medium has been revolutionary for me, in terms of writing. But there would have been other lessons, and who knows what those would have been.
I still have a lot to learn about universal basic income. You mentioned that money is where we work out our stuff, and that’s been true for me this past year, but before that it was in work and relationships. I believe work is a central aspect of life and a way we get to know ourselves, develop, learn to be part of a community, etc. I’d see it as a terrible thing if people just took money and then didn’t work. So it was exciting to read that article I linked to, about how people did put the money to good use, often starting businesses. I’m also pretty forgiving and patient; I think someone might take ten years, but eventually they’ll figure out how much they’re missing and how boring life is without satisfying work. In the meantime, I’m not sure it’s right for us as a society to make them suffer and die — and all the extra implications of poverty, like crime and poor health — because their family and community didn’t teach this basic life lesson in the first place. Or whatever the reason is.
About being brainwashed — I KNOW! When I was little, all I wanted was to have my hair so long it reached the ground. I thought this was a total “me” thing. Until I saw a TV program about Cher and realized it was all about seeing her on TV, and probably half the little girls in America wanted the same thing. Nice to know I’m not really that different from everyone else!
It’s SO HARD to separate our own thoughts/preferences/desires from what’s going on around us. I think it’s a basic fact of being human that marketers exploit, rather than purely a marketing thing, if that makes sense. I used to feel really creepy about it, like my identity was being lost, but I’ve come around to feeling okay about it. I feel like people in a community are SUPPOSED to affect and influence one another. It’s one aspect of how interdependent we are in ALL ways. I think it’s just important to be aware of what we’re valuing and as much as possible why, so that we can try to make good choices.
But you know, avocado and gold … they’re not that awful in themselves? Can I say that? I mean, they’re nature colors. Maybe we just think they’re hideous now because we’ve moved on and they’re not what we’ve decided to think is beautiful now. But I guarantee, in 20 or 40 years, if we still have refrigerators and stoves, they’re going to be avocado and gold again!
About travel, right, it’s like this is what the cool kids are doing now, and it’s always been pretty much the prerogative of the wealthier classes. I do believe it’s a good thing, at least to do once, so that a person sees there are other ways to be and live than what we’ve grown up with. I think reading and art can probably open a person’s mind in the same way. I’ve loved it, but I think it’s coming to an end soon — at least at this level — and I’m so excited to have a house and a garden and a woodshop — there’s a million things I want to do and learn that I can’t while I’m homeless.
So this was long. I’m in Madrid and I have a nasty cold and have been doing almost nothing but sleeping and taking hot baths, so this is what happens. But it’s been fun to connect with you and talk about all this a little more. I’m glad to have met someone as self-reflective and thoughtful as you are, and I’m glad you’re taking good care of yourself (sounds like you are!).
