What has democracy done for me?

I am of East European heritage: Slovak on my father’s side, Ukrainian on my mother’s side. Both sides belonged to the peasant classes, relegated to the labor the rich people did not want to do. Both sets of grandparents got a Grade 3 education before they went to work. Both sets of grandparents came to Canada. Again, both sets of grandparents did the work the rich (English) people did not want to do.

But they saw better opportunity for themselves and their families. Nearly all their grandchildren finished high school. Most took on some kind of post-secondary education. In the world my grandparents left behind, their grandchildren would not have reached a higher potential simply because they belonged to an economic class that wasn’t supposed to do the good work.

As I am understanding history, it seems the 90% poor and 10% rich seems to be the natural order of humanity. This middle class is an aberration of this natural order. I believe that democracy is mostly responsible for breaking that natural order, thus creating that middle class. There is something about a competitive election that forces the 10% to consider the needs of the 90%.

Personally, I don’t want to go back to the “good old days.” But we just might be heading that way. If one belongs to the upper 10% today (I don’t), life will be OK. But for the 90% relegated to a subsistence living— well that’s a recipe for a great social disorder.

So what has democracy done for me? It has given me the education to partake in discussions like this. It has given me the free time to partake in discussions like this. It has allowed me the freedom to express my opinion and write a book about those ideas. My grandparents could not have envisioned one of their grandchildren doing something like this.

I also believe it is possible to improve our democracy. We should not be stuck on a model from 1688 (British) or 1789 (American) or 1950 (post-war European).

So it is now all your choice. If you are one of the many dystopians I have encountered over the years, then continue to wallow in that most of us are all going downhill. Or maybe you belong to the current 10%, so you can save yourself and your progeny from the slide. But it’s all your choice.