As I was on my morning walk I passed a billboard that stated “Make More. Be Better.” I’m assuming it was an advertisement for some sort of certification or trade school since they had picture was of a young black guy with a hard hat on. Nevertheless, when I read it I instantly thought.. That’s it! That is the lie of upward mobility…the misconstrued concept of the American Dream in a concise slogan. Make More. Be Better.
In America we have been told & sold a dream that says the more you make the better you’ll be. When we have constantly and consistently seen this not to be the case. (Insert your favorite self-destructive/suicidal rich celebrity here) What we see continue to see is Make more, have more… but make more, be better has yet to be proven. So I say Be Better. Make More as a result.
Be Better. Make More is a better way to live. Because it creates a better standard to live by. I believe if this was the way we thought about capitalism; that the top priority was to be better first and as a result make more we would have a better system with less corruption and discrimination. Really at the end of the day the ultimate goal that everyone wants is to be better. So why not start there? Because we have been lead to believe the only way to get there is to make more. This is the root of the lie.
This is the sickness that plagues our country. We fervently believe that the more we make the better we will be. That’s why we see the CEO’s slack on standards and put people in danger in order to make more money so that they can hope to be better. When the real way is to be better is to have standards that keeps the customer and employees best interest at heart.
In the black community it is the rallying cry for us to “make it out” of the hood by making more first than being better. The unsaid message is that we are less than if we don’t make more. I mean that’s why every financially successful person from humble financial beginnings are looked as Better even when the state of their emotional, mental, and relationship well being says otherwise. In this country it’s a given that if you don’t make more you will not and cannot be better. Thus ushering in hustle culture and poverty shaming into the community.
We have to stop lying to our people and saying we are less than because we don’t make more. Especially since we know the system has been set up as such that goal is that we don’t make more. When are we going to stop believing the lie that the more you make the better you are? Has it worked for our white counterparts? Are they inherently better because they have more? The truth is to be better you have be better, do better, get better which does not necessary include making more. We must change the cultural narrative that currently persists.. Make More and as result you are Better. It has to be Be Better and Make more if that’s what better looks like for you.
Let’s no longer decide that it is a given that making more equals being better. Let’s stop the cycle of trying to make more because we think that’s the only way to be better. Let’s finally understand that being better has such a small amount to do with making more its not worth focusing on at the rate that we do. No more making more but still feeling less.