Off with your nose! Why do people continue to do things that hurt others on purpose? And sometimes that hurt themselves?

Building wealth does not have to include beating down or exploiting people to accomplish your goals, because you’re hurting yourself as well. Prime example: There’s the big wigs who think they’re doing workers a favor by employing them but they don’t pay workers fairly and at the same time raise prices to meet increased minimum wages so profit margins stay the same. Sooner or later there’s the issue of nobody being able to buy period or people looking for alternatives since they can’t meet your prices.

What everyone has to remember is that the people who work for them are usually the ones who are also their consumers, and if they can’t afford to buy what they produce, they will either do things like boycott or strike, or follow the same practices that others do to meet gouging prices; alternatives like shopping at resale places or going to community gardens instead. And bargain entrepreneurs will always pop up (some with five-finger discounts). Hello, recessions!

Then there is the more serious issue of getting people addicted to things, the worse putting drugs into poor communities (because corner boys don’t own planes or boats) – but the drugs didn’t stay there, do they? And wealthy kids find ways to make more exotic versions because they can afford it, causing very bad outcomes.

Let’s not forget big pharma, who have been responsible for things like the opioid epidemic and the very unfair burden placed on people who need life-saving drugs but can’t afford them. Unfortunately, big pharma has not suffered any real repercussions because their products are essential to so many.

Currently is the issue on banning abortion. I personally think a misogynist saw The Handmaid’s Tale and thought it was a good idea. Question one: Will there be legislation that will ensure that papa pays to take care of these children or step up fatherhood duties stronger than the ones that are currently in place? If women can go to jail for not wanting an unwanted child, so should a man who has intercourse with her and shirks the duty of being careful. And what about the innumerable number of children who are already unwanted or neglected? Will pro-lifers step up to the plate and adopt or foster these children and any future ones born? Oh yeah, and not for the purposes of free labor or sex toys.

And then there’s disorders like Munchausen’s where parents or caregivers create symptoms and assign them to their children. It’s difficult to pinpoint when this occurs if there is no accurate medical information for a medical professional to intervene. The parents get the attention that they crave, but the children can have fatal outcomes.

There are several ways that people hurt themselves – not always intentionally – that have more to do with another party or society in general. For instance, people who deny who they are to satisfy others because they are seeking approval or recognition, or to avoid ridicule and being shunned. One example currently is the gender identification issue and, in tandem, the issue of people’s sexuality. Of course there are emotional and mental problems that arise, and even suicide.

Those who wish to please another because they believe they are in love will suffer some form of abuse – physical most common, but also mental because their self-esteem is doubly diminished. They not only feel a lack of self-esteem initially, but they receive affirmation when they are degraded or undervalued.

Then there’s the “I’ll show you” team which is usually associated with children because they think they’re hurting someone by hurting themselves or doing what they have been accused of (when they were initially innocent). But this does spill over to adults who believe that proving someone right about them is hurting those people, when of course they are the only ones being hurt.

And one-sided warriors (one passive aggressive type) who have private competitions or perform petty injustices because they believe the acts keep them ahead of the person who has no idea that the competition or war is going on. Free rent is taken up in their psyche by a non-existent boarder. And the sometimes detrimental person who believes they are in love with someone who does not know they even exist. I remember some talk show segment where Michael Ealy was a guest and someone asked about his opinion of someone leaving their significant other for him (don’t remember if she said herself). Mr. Ealy answered basically in the only way that made sense: he would never want to be the reason for someone leaving someone else because he did not know the person. That type of thinking places an unfair burden on a person who is totally unaware of the person, or unaware of the feelings of someone they do know.

This is a side of human nature that is inexplicable to me, but appears to be necessary in the scheme of things. I read somewhere that humans were the worst creatures on earth, and they were right.