Financial Burdens

Financial burdens are some of the most constant, near-universal trials faced by many groups of people even in modern Western culture, where the poor are supposed to live in luxury by comparison to the wealthy of more ancient times.  Many Americans are only one disease or car/house problem away from being unable to save money for a given month instead of spending all or more than what they make in that period, and the conditions of COVID-19--both the initial circumstances of the pandemic and the inept reactions and overreactions alike--have not helped almost anyone but already wealthy business owners prosper since early 2020.  It is true that capitalism itself is not the selfish applications of it that are rightly hated by so many, but deficiencies already present in American capitalism have been especially exposed in the past two years.

Alongside matters of health, financial matters are some of the most vital of the practical aspects of life, as well as some of the most likely to shape a person's mental health.  As they opposed lockdowns in response to COVID-19, conservatives cited both relative economic standstill and a higher risk of mental illness as supposed reasons why almost nothing at all should be done as a reaction to the pandemic.  The irony is that their own economic ideas bring misery and mental health crises as well--not that liberal politics is the solution, as that has its own deep philosophical flaws.  It is not even very difficult to see that the evidence of conservatives' words and actions actually point to them using mental health as a situational attempt to gain support, not them caring about mental illnesses overlapping with financial woes.

The way to identify the insincerity of conservatives in condemning the 2020 pandemic lockdowns because they hurt mental health (with isolation, inability to see friends, activity restrictions, and so on) is that they do not oppose the current American style of capitalism despite its enormous potential to devastate the mental health of millions.  Even though the American version of the workplace has usually been marked by low pay for long hours, apathy from managers towards severe non-work issues that call for days off, and routine mismanagement by those at the top of many companies, conservatives are often stupid enough to think that any change from the economic/workplace status quo is somehow communism and then oppose it harshly.  Before and during the pandemic they suddenly expressed concern for mental health in, they never collectively wanted to make life easier for workers as a whole.

Now, money cannot change metaphysical limitations, remove epistemological limitations, or address moral problems, but it can provide a penetrating level of security that diminishes the impact of many other trials.  After all, who would not need to worry less about getting mental or physical health problems dealt with by visiting doctors, repairing cars, homes, or other belongings, and acquiring necessities like food if they had a monetary safety net?  Many non-financial worries are magnified by financial burdens because some of the only ways to alleviate them cost money.  In this sense, financial security is a pathway to a far more general wellbeing.

Enough money to take care of basic needs and still have leftover savings for other problems is all it might take to prevent a high number of people from ever having broad anxiety or depression about practical life, as they would have the resources to access solutions to various trials that would otherwise be devastating.  It is demonstrably true that money cannot deliver anyone from every problem or give life objective significance.  To think otherwise is to believe in obvious error, yet the role of money in providing personal security and alleviating or even thwarting mental illnesses is usually overlooked by Christians except to ironically call for destructive conservative policies based on materialistic greed.