How to become part of the nobility

Let's talk about economic exploitation for a moment. For the purposes of this post, I'm going to go with this definition:

The act of forcing people into selling their goods or services at less than what it costs them to produce - for the benefit of others.

All of us utilize society's economic system to exploit others. All of us.

When you wake up in the morning, you drink coffee from growers who are underpaid for their product. That's exploitation.

The shoes you bought were made from the sweat and suffering of non-union labor in 3rd world countries. If they protest, they end up dead. That's exploitation.

When you swing by McDonald's for lunch, the person handing you a bag of fries does not have the power to demand a wage that meets her basic needs. That's exploitation.

Your entire lifestyle depends on an economic system which provides you with a vast, silent, underpaid group of de-facto slaves who had to do your bidding - or starve.

So what can we do about it?

Many people who find this kind of exploitation reprehensible are given two choices: Either withdraw from society, or rebel against it.

I don't like either option. Caves are moldy and bad for my asthma, and Revolutions have a nasty habit of eventually killing the writers. (Read: me.)

Furthermore, it's better to use positive reenforcement rather than negative. If retreating or violence created positive social change, the world would today be run by cave-hermits and anarchist college students.

Instead, we simply need to re-introduce a concept into the the popular culture that makes people want to emulate more considerate values.

I propose that if Americans are going to act like a privileged class, we should bring back the concept of "Nobless Oblige". Nobless Oblige is the French phrase for "Obligations of the Nobility". Is the concept that, as a member of a class of people who benefit from an exploitative system, you have a responsibility to the people below you on the social ladder to be considerate.

It is an acknowledgment that most of the privileges you enjoy are a birthright - and you did nothing to earn them. You never chose to be born in the United States, you never chose to be born into a stable family, you never chose to be gifted with intelligence.

If you expect the underclass to serve you for the same reasons you enjoy your status, (ie: Birthright.) you have to at least make an effort to not abuse your status and stop supporting institutions that do.

This means that you avoid shopping at Wal-Mart, that you use public transit every once in awhile, that you refuse to ever cross a Union picket line, and, that you support policies and laws that treat the poor with dignity - even if it means that it will make the cost of a bag of fries go up by a few pennies.

If most people in the middle-class, not all mind you, started taking Nobless Oblige seriously, much of the worst aspects of the our exploitative system would whither away. And, as an added bonus, everyone would have a shot at joining the nobility.

Read counterpoint here.

Tags: Noblesse oblige - Exploitation

Credits: Image above is an oil painting by Slater titled "McDonald's in Paris". You can purchase a print here.

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