Adam Ragusea and the $15,000 fridge
In his latest video, Adam teaches how to make a good, cheap bean-dish. I dig it.
He says he likes living in a system that promotes hard work and innovation, but thinks resources should be distributed more fairly.
He and his wife bought a house that had an old, large fridge. They replaced their old fridge and either had to get a $15,000 fridge or hire a carpenter to build new cabinets for them, to fill the empty space.
He says he wants a system that more fairly distributes resources.
But there is a system with the capacity to more fairly distribute resources, but he chose not to utilize it.
We have infrastructure for donations, for wealthy people to give money to poor people. These systems are flawed, sure, but they do exist.
He should put his money where his mouth is, and so should every other person who believes this and can reasonably afford it.
If you want your taxes to be increased to help pay for services for poor people, you should find a non-profit that serves poor people and give them money.
I also want the government to do a better job of regulating wealth and ensuring better quality of life for poor people. Government should be doing this job, in my view.
But also, blaming the government for your personal choice to hoard wealth is a cop-out. Buy a $2,000 fridge, and donate $13,000. Or maybe spend another $2,000 on cabinet work and donate $11,000. Put your money where your mouth is. You don't need a $15,000 fridge.
Now. I'm not sure that I'm better, or that I'd be better if I were wealthy. There's many, many times that I've driven past the beggar when I could have spared a dollar. I've spent money on video games, when I could've given $5 to a homeless person. (I do actually give money to beggars with some regularity, but probably not as much as I could spare)
I can talk about how little I have to spend ($100 a month), but I'm still in a boat where I do have something I could spare. Where do I draw the line? When is my wealth (I have a vehicle and a house and state-funded medical insurance and food stamps) going to be enough that I share with poor people?
I don't know.
But I sure hope if I had a million dollars ... well I hope I wouldn't have a million dollars, actually. I don't need that much. If I were a millionaire (not counting retirement), I hope I would give away enough money/resources (or pay people to provide enough services) that I would no longer be a millionaire.
I like Adam Ragusea. I don't mean this post as a judgement of his character. I mean it is a call to personal responsibility. When you say you believe in something, check yourself. Do your actions reflect that?
In this case, Adam's actions do not reflect the values he spoke about.
Adam also is a professional cooking YouTuber so having a presentable kitchen has added value that may not be relevant to others. He didn't talk about this, but I think it's worth considering. He's also invested in a pizza business (time, and I think some money too) which will create some jobs and distribute some resources through work. I think this is good. And he might donate money to charities, or to poor family members and friends.
Again, I'm not interested in attacking his character here. I'm interested in the broad picture of taking responsibility for our values, and for not outsourcing them to Government (or blaming government) when there's something we can actually do ourselves.