Two Islands.
Picture two islands.
Food, which never spoils, is hidden on both.
Island A: Search, and you’ll find just enough to survive each day. Life is safe and predictable, but exhausting. You’re foraging forever — no rest, no surplus, no freedom.
Island B: There’s twice as much food, but it’s scattered unevenly. You could search for 100 days and find nothing. Then, on one lucky day, you come across a stash that feeds you for 200.
Island B has twice as much food as Island A. There you can build, dream, and live.
But if that stash doesn’t come in time, you starve.
Which would you choose?
Alone? You really have no choice. You must go with Island A if you want to survive.
With 100 strangers? B would certainly be better if the rules for sharing were clear and fairly enforced from the start.
With 100 friends? Island B sounds like paradise… but without those rules, does it last? How long until friends turn on each other?
Where do we live?
Three hundred years ago, both islands essentially existed. Early America was more like Island A — a hard but reliable life. Over time, we chased abundance and turned it into Island B.
Today, Island A is gone.
And we all live on Island B now.
Effort doesn’t guarantee survival. Wealth, jobs, opportunities — they cluster, uneven and unpredictable. A few hit jackpots. Many prosper. Some scrape by. Others just don’t make it. We never cracked the code for sharing.
Why not?
We’re scared:
Of being gamed. Are they really in need or just hoarding behind the scenes?
Of enabling laziness or bad behavior. It’s not fair if only some do the work.
Of asking. Dignity gets in the way. If I’m struggling, is it my fault?
This matters for those who lack enough, of course. But think of what we’re all missing out on. Those with whom we haven’t shared engage in desperation rather than with dignity. They aren’t uncovering that next stash, they’re bowing to whims, coerced to serve and follow.
Island B brims with possibility.
It’s where the abundance is.
It’s where the freedom is.
But without new rules — fair, trusted, enforced —
some don’t survive, and none of us really thrive.