5. Olivia's Dilemma
The Contributist and the Capitalist, Part I
The Three Types of Social Participation
What does it look like to be a contributist?
Broadly, I find it helpful to think about any individual as functioning in their society on three levels: as a personal actor, as a community actor, and as a societal actor. As a personal actor, the individual is concerned with their own needs and desires — how should I act in order to live the life I want to live? As a community actor, the individual thinks about how their actions impact those around them — how should I act in order to be a good member of my community? And as a societal actor, the individual looks beyond themselves, and considers how the societal system should operate as a whole — what rules, systems, and incentives should we establish to improve the overall health of the society? Every one of us functions on all three levels, though we vary in where we choose to spend our energy, and how much influence we are able to exert.
We are familiar with how the capitalist operates on these three levels. As a personal actor, the capitalist asks, how can I improve my standing by making more money? As a community actor, the capitalist asks, how can I employ, exploit, trade, or compete with others, to make more money? (By design, the capitalist acts only in self-interest — oh, the wonders of the invisible hand!) As a societal actor, the capitalist asks, how can our society be more business-friendly and encourage market competition?
The contributist also operates on all three of these levels. As a personal actor, the contributist asks, how can I further humanize myself by giving? As a community actor, the contributist asks, how can I help those around me to assert their right to give? And as a societal actor, the contributist asks, how can our society help individuals to assert their right to give?
To be clear, no person is purely a capitalist, or purely a contributist. Just like our societies, we each contain multitudes, and we often shift between various modes in the span of a day. An average individual might inhabit the mentality of a capitalist while working on a side hustle in the morning before work, a loyal employee from nine till noon, a Democrat at lunch while watching clips of the late night shows, a union rep at a late afternoon meeting, a father at home in the evening, a husband when the kids have gone to bed, and finally, an anti-work anarchist while scrolling through Reddit in bed.
But we are capitalists insofar as we choose to let the concerns of capitalism guide our behavior. And we are contributists insofar as we choose to be guided by the concerns of contributism.
It should be noted that these are not always in conflict. Sometimes contributism and capitalism lead to similar behavior — the simple act of employing others is both contributist and capitalist, for example. But the two frameworks guide us by very different hands, and when they do come into conflict, we must choose what we prioritize. It is these moments that offer a glimpse into what sort of people we choose to be, and what sort of society we choose to help build.
The Contributist and the Capitalist, Part I — The Personal Actor
Olivia’s Dilemma
Olivia spent a decade working as a high school math teacher in Oakland, but burnt out from the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to leave her job and shift into private tutoring. Now she provides college prep tutoring for high school students in her community, some of whom she used to teach in school. She keeps her rates low, because her community is low-income. She knows she could charge twice as much tutoring richer kids in nearby communities, but she’s not interested; she prefers to serve the kids in her community, who might not make it to college without her help. Besides, she makes enough to support herself. Or, at least, she used to. She’s about to have her first child, and the childcare costs are more than her current income can support. How does she increase her income to ensure she can support herself and her child?
Olivia The Capitalist
The capitalist Olivia is primarily concerned about her financial circumstance — the question at the top of her mind is how can I make more money to support myself? Sure, tutoring the students in her community has made her feel good, but it’s clear that this is no longer financially feasible. She picks up her phone and powers through a series of tough conversations — explaining to the parents of each of her current students that her rate will double at the end of the semester. She loses over half of her clients, and she winces when she thinks about the financial strain she’s putting on the others.
She feels a bit better when she starts to make some calls in Fremont, a nearby community where she has some connections. There, she finds plenty of new clients — wealthy parents eager to pay whatever it takes to get their kids into the top schools. But she can’t fully shake the creeping feeling that she has become a bit more alienated — both from her community and her own self.
Olivia The Contributist
The contributist Olivia’s primary concern is maintaining her right to give to her community by offering her tutoring services. Her new financial concern exists in the context of this primary concern — it is a challenge to her right to give. So the idea of doubling her rates — and pricing out her community — strikes her as plainly counterproductive. Sure, she’d have enough money to support herself, but this would come at no small cost to her humanity; she would no longer be the person she wants to be. So, she recognizes that she has to think more creatively.
After talking extensively with her clients (both the parents and the students) about her dilemma, and considering a variety of their suggestions, she lands on a solution that suits everyone’s needs. She begins to offer group tutoring sessions. She offers these sessions at a lower rate than that of her individual sessions, but she teaches up to five students at a time, meaning that she makes about three times as much from one of these sessions as she does from her individual sessions. Finally, she raises her individual tutoring rate by about ten percent; an amount that works for nearly all of her current clients.
With this plan, she is now making enough to support her own family, and has also improved her ability to give to her community — though the group sessions are lower impact than one-on-one sessions, the increased capacity and lower cost of entry has enabled her to reach even more students than before. By targeting her right to give rather than her right to capitalize her resources, she has managed to come to a stronger solution than she would have been led to by self-interest alone — a solution that affirms both herself and her community.
Read next: 6. To the Economic Actor —