In a world where we would be forced to evaluate the competitive market value of most human capital today, I grow concerned about the rate of diminishing returns from certain sectors. Quality people are all around us. There are just so many more people who aren't.
I believe that this is strictly out of choice, mind you. Who can place perceived value on the individual except for the individual? After all, above any minority group that I can think of, the most valuable one is that of the individual, and they can rise from humble beginnings to kingly endings Much like a snowball grows monumental as it falls from the mountain peaks all the way down to the foot, so too people can start out small and make choices, decisions and steps to take themselves to larger destinations.
It's not a popular view that I take. I believe in meritocracy. I believe that people should be rewarded based on their contributions to society. Contribute more, you'll get more. It's a principal as old as time, and it will continue to be truth regardless of what anyone has to say on the matter.
Note: we're not talking about people with disabilities here. If they are in legitimate need, it is our duty to help them out as best we can.
I'm talking about the ones who have no skin in the game, but want to do the play calling. You know who they are. They're the ones who know better than you what you should say, what you should think, who you should be, what your dreams are, what the secrets of the universe are, when you should accomplish everything, where you should go scholastically, philosophically, politically, economically, spiritually, socially, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Who knows? Maybe they have nothing better to do than to live vicariously through you because they couldn't cut it.
Harsh? So what? If I feel compelled to live life in the way that it moves me, it doesn't make much difference to me at all who likes it and who doesn't. If I have a strong moral compass, and choose to live legally, morally and ethically, good on me. I will have self-respect, and that's good enough for me.
Ask yourselves, who are the people who are weighing you down and clipping your wings? Love them, but do it from a distance and give them no quarter. Until they're willing to be meaningful contributors to your particular equation, they are irrelevant.