Humanism and Altruism

 

 

I am pleased to acknowledge a humanistic economic model that’s fully functioning in Mondragon, Spain per a January 3, 2021 edition of The New York Times. In this humanistic economic model, a number of cooperatives were established. Cooperatives were composed of a number of businesses like grocery chains and various manufacturers. In this arrangement, the businesses humanized the workers working conditions. They did what? They fostered a Democratic process in which the workers were owners and voted democratically on wages, working conditions, hours, profit sharing, pensions etc. This humanistic socialistic principle was founded, in the 1940’s by Jose M. Arizmendiarrieta, a priest .This model counters the ridiculous, unfair and exploitive conditions found in neoliberalism. In our country, for example chief executives, in the largest 350 companies, earned about 320 times the amount of a typical worker. As contrasted, a chief executive in a Bosque model made about 6 times as much as their workers.

These Spanish workers know that they benefitted from sacrifices, which in turn strengthened their businesses. The priest viewed cooperative principles as a key for uplifting living standards. There is nothing wrong with this humanistic economic model.  In our country, The Democracy Collaborative was founded in 2000 at the University of Maryland. This model was implemented In Cleveland in 2010. The organization’s goal is to create a foundation for a democratic economy built upon liberty, community and prosperity for all. Within this form of altruism, self-esteem and concern for others increases.

As far as altruism goes, a number of wealthy millennial’s, in our country, are dissatisfied with the status and the disastrous negative effects of neoliberalism capitalism. They are altruistic in their giving per an article in the November 29, 2020 edition of The New York Times. These young are the recipients of the largest generational shift of assets in American history-the great wealth transfer. Tens of millions of dollars are expected to pass between these generation types in the next decade alone. The money, like all wealth in the United States, is concentrated in the upper brackets. These millennial’s, in the last six years, have taken the Democratic Socialists of America, once a fringe organization, to an average membership age of 60. This organization has national chapters in every state with a total membership of nearly 100,000 with most under age 35.  One millennial stated my money is mostly stocks which means it came from underpaying and undervaluing working-class people. Not only that, it’s impossible to disconnect from the primary economic legacies of indigenous genocide and slavery. She added, once I realized that, I could not imagine doing anything with my wealth besides redistributing it to these communities.

A professor added  these wealthy millennial’s are inheriting from a mammoth redistribution away from the working masses, creating a superrich tiny minority at the expense of a fleeting American dream that is now out of reach to most people. Another group called Resource Generation is a nonprofit group that focuses on organizing wealthy young people as a result of their unearned privilege. Other groups like Grassroots International and Thousand Currents are other philanthropic networks working for facilitating altruistic improvement to others.

Altruism is a concern for happiness and welfare of other human beings .It seems to have been lost in the dog eat dog world of economic competition. Altruism is very different than the survival of the fittest. The ideas of altruism can be found in the writings of all the major religions. It counters the neoliberal ideas of capitalism which is based on the greed, accumulation, possession and selfishness. It’s an attitude of egoism.

To be clear, altruism benefits both the giver and the receiver. Feelings of empathetic concern are contrasted with feelings of personal distress which compel people to reduce their own unpleasant emotions. People with empathetic concern help others in distress even when that exposure to the solution could easily be avoided. Those lacking in empathetic concern, find it difficult to avoid helplessness when exposed to another’s suffering. Altruism can be expressed through helping, comforting, sharing(powerful, unites and its importance can be found in religion, politics and philosophy), cooperating, philanthropy, and community service. Those wealthy millennial’s express effective altruism as they work to help people less fortunate than themselves. Yes, there is hope.

PS

The theory behind alienation, yes, it’s an actual theory with hypotheses, is irrefragable, and previous research suggests that the workers in Spain would not meet the criteria for alienation ,egoism and exploitation. A study, for example, comparing them to Save Mart workers would.  Would the workers in Spain be happier with self, relate to others more productively, employ higher levels of reasoning with a higher functioning conscience and be better adjusted  than our workers at Save Mart?

I would welcome the task to conduct research evaluating the mental health of the workers in the Democratic model in Spain with the Save Mart workers in our country. I would control the variables for gender, education level, marital status, and age. Measures on variables that I’d be interested in include: 1. Perception of reinforcements; internal- external locus of control 2. Family cohesiveness, child and spousal abuse 3. Moral development and criminal behavior 4.  Altruism 5.  Egoism 6. Measures of attachment, depression and anxiety 7. Empathy 8. Worker absenteeism, disability, morale 9. Measures of self-esteem, happiness and well-being 10. Attitude towards politics, religion and work.