Essay: Theft

Let’s talk about theft, kids. In the business world there are a few ways to get ahead. First, be born into a network that wins you priceless favors, status, and innumerable “legs up”. Second, but related, be so rich that you can buy your way into these networks or finance a personal fast-track. Lastly, and to be honest, the most rare: hard work and talent.

When the phrase “talent” is thrown around it actually means a concoction of a few things. Talent requires a baseline intelligence and decent grifting and/or bluffing skills. Talent also needs a steady flow of ideas—from the practical, and often immediately effective to the strategic, or the most bro-y of them all, the moonshot. Now if you go analyzed the “most talented” people at any given business you’ll end up with a confident dude, acting as a puppet for their ever-toiling friends or co-workers. However, those bros will also never realize that they are parroting wisdom already shared or presented… They know to say it because women and minorities are usually the ones putting in all the work to come up with the original idea, without credit. And lord knows how that will go. The words are accredited to the “talented person” with the golden brain. But just like back when the colonists did it (with land, with skills, etc.)… it is still theft.

Another fun form of theft is wage inequality. Why would the people doing the work be compensated according to the value that they create? Oh yeah, it’s because their words and thoughts are being claimed by others. Plus, the superiors of said “talented person” did the same thing, and will continue to do the same, turning a blind eye all the while, to continue to get ahead. They afford each other raises and opportunities for plans and value that they did not create. This shit is systemic. The more it continues to happen, the larger those gaps (wage and otherwise) will become. Time for some radical redistribution if you ask me!

It gets even more fucked when the same systemic oppression model is applied the the cities, homes, school districts, and more. People putting in the work without fair compensation are forced to live in less expensive parts of town, in less elaborate dwellings. School districts are underfunded due to the smaller tax base, then less educational opportunities are provided to their students. The students are fed into the same cycle, trapping their future offspring. These environmental factors become an acute part of maintaining the chain of theft. When it reaches this level, this fever pitch—these thefts claim lives. 

Less-funded cities or regions are frequently sought after by “talented” executives at mega-corporations trolling for inexpensive labor. Their companies, their factories treat human beings as a disposable part of their supply chain. More often than not, the surrounding environment is treated the same way. People are expendable. Land has a finite use because maintaining the legal standards are too expensive. Penalties are the cost of doing business, and they’re a hell of a lot cheaper than doing the right thing. An acceptable profit margin justifies the ultimate theft: that of current and future life (from the life of plants and wildlife to people). Even the opportunity of life, joy, thought of the beings that could have existed there are stripped away. Never to be replaced. There is nothing left to give. Everything has been stolen.