The Goodies

My mom is a good cook. She made a lot of soup when I was a kid. Soup is budget-friendly and fills growing bellies.

Chili. Vegetable beef. Beans. Black-eyed peas. Gumbo. Chicken noodle. Potato soup. My childhood in a bowl.

My mom always said one thing when we went to the pot to ladle up our supper:

“Don’t take all the goodies.”

She meant we should take broth along with the meat or noodles or beans. We shouldn’t try to scoop to the bottom of the pot to drag out all of the big pieces for ourselves. Don’t be selfish. We should leave some goodies for the rest of the family.

I think about that phrase a lot.

My mom’s chili.

I once worked with a woman who was famous for making ham balls. If you’re not from the Midwest, you may have missed these little flavor bombs.

My friend’s recipe includes ground ham, ground beef or ground pork, graham crackers, milk, and eggs. Form it all into little balls and then cook them with a glaze of brown sugar, mustard, ketchup, and a little vinegar.

It’s pretty sweet. That’s also a Midwestern theme — sweet meat. I was raised in the South, so this has been an adjustment, but I’ve grown to love the food. Especially ham balls.

But, back to my co-worker and her famous ham balls.

She told everyone she would bring them to a potluck, and she did. She made enough to allow everyone to get two or three — she even sent out an email saying so.

When lunch time arrived, I walked down to the lounge and saw another co-worker slyly walking out with a full plate of ham balls. Nothing else. Just a plate mounded over with ham balls. He had one hand holding the mound or they would have spilled off his plate.

When I saw him, I commented on his plate because I was pretty irate about it. Not because I am prone to getting in people’s business at potlucks, but because my friend wanted everyone to try the food she is famous for making. I mean…she sent an email.

The ham ball glutton told me he knew how many people were going to eat at the potluck, and he wanted to get his before anyone else…he was worried he wouldn’t get enough, so he went in early.

He was on a diet. He didn’t eat carbs, so he grabbed as much meat as he could.

I wanted to tell him that those balls of meat were chock-full of carbs and sugar, but I stayed mute.

Eat them all. Gorge yourself.

He deserved the five pounds and the sugar crash. He sure wasn’t weighed down with selflessness.

He hoarded the goodies. He took the time and energy and love my friend had put into making her special recipe all for himself.

As he walked away, I knew my mom would have chased him down. Likely while swinging a wooden spoon.

I have known many selfish people in my life. People who take all of the goodies. And I’m not talking about soup or ham balls. I am talking about the time and energy they take from others. The resources they hoard for themselves. Often, they hoard wealth.

And what is even worse than an individual hoarding wealth? A corporation hoarding wealth. The magnitude of the problem is multiplied.

Unlike soup and ham balls, there is no shortage of money, yet we have corporations hoarding wealth anyway. Investors demand it. They can’t be satisfied. They are insatiable.

The United States is a massive country and there should be no scarcity of land or housing, but in places like St. Louis, corporations own over 20% of residential land and much of the housing market.

Corporations own over 1/5 of Missouri’s largest city.

We have corporations and billionaires that use shell companies and offshore accounts and trusts and complex financial transactions to avoid taxes. The purpose is to hide and hoard money.

They don’t care about wealth inequality. They don’t care about the rest of us.

Corporations and billionaires don’t care that my children can’t afford to buy a house, though they have done everything right. My kids got the degrees and the internships. They apprenticed. They worked hard and showed up. It doesn’t matter because they are getting started in a world tilted against them.

They have been told that #VanLife is the way to go. Travel and live in your car. That is real freedom.

I mean, if that’s your thing, I love it for you. Go for it. But I think you should be able to afford a home on a foundation.

Roots not wheels.

Why can’t the young people get ahead? Surely it’s the fact that they buy expensive coffee. Get their nails done. Pay for cell phones and the internet.

No.

While we chastise the younger generations for their spending habits, the extra $200 a month spent on coffee or going to the nail salon won’t help much. Bidding for housing against LLCs is difficult at best. Hopeless at worst.

And corporations are often terrible landlords.

My kids can’t get ahead for the same reason your kids and grandkids can’t get ahead: wealth hoarding. The rich keep getting richer, and our children don’t have the wages or stability of a good job to keep up. And pensions are a thing of the past.

From The Rich Are Hoarding Wealth — Because They Know What’s Coming:

Let’s cut through the noise: the ultra-wealthy are not just accumulating wealth; they are hoarding it, stockpiling fortunes at a rate so obscene it makes the concept of money itself feel ridiculous. While the rest of us get lectured on cutting back — drive less, eat less meat, recycle, make do with less — they are securing their bunkers, buying up remote islands, and building escape plans for the very collapse they are accelerating.

The billionaires and the corporations are taking all of the goodies. And they are doing it at a quick pace. From land to homes to wages. They are selfishly keeping all the good things for themselves.

They are scooping out all of the big pieces.

They have taken the whole pot and licked their spoons clean.

They are mounding over their plates over and sneaking away.

We can do better, and I know we will when we pass legislation that addresses the inequality and the wealth hoarding. The first step is electing lawmakers who speak on these issues and offer solutions.

Until then, our economy needs a mom with a wooden spoon.

~Jess