What can one person reasonably do?

Societal plagues

These ideas keep coming up again and again. The idea of:

1. I feel so helpless at work.
2. I'm not making enough money.
3. I need to see X doctor, but I don’t want to spend the money.
4. Groceries are getting more expensive (opens in a new tab) and its worrisome.

Any one of these issues can plague us for weeks, often months, and almost certainly years. Now, the exception is if you just have a ton of money and you don't have to worry about things that most people have to worry about.

But if you are like most people, there is an answer, and a solution more specifically, to the problems that plague you, and that is government.

But we seldom ask - what is the purpose of government?

What is the point of government?

Everyone has their own idea of what government is and does, but we don't often define what we want it to be, or what it should do, what purpose it should serve.

Very crucially, the original social (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab)contract (opens in a new tab) was essentially some agreed-upon group of people to enforce a set of rules so as to not kill each other.

If someone breaks those rules, these people collectively will pursue appropriate ramifications for the person who broke the agreed-upon rules.

This is a huge oversimplification, but high level idea.

Now, what happens if one of those selected people, who are supposed to enforce rules, breaks rules themselves? Then it's the responsibility of the people to remove that power (opens in a new tab) from the person who's breaking those rules, who's supposed to use his or her power, given by the people, to enact the appropriate punishment.

But now in 2026, it seems like we don't even know how to at times. And if we kind of know what the end goal is, at least it seems like most of us have no idea what to do. What can one person reasonably do?

A common one we think of is, we go vote. We vote for giving power to some person to represent us. But that's not the only thing we can do.

What to do?

First and foremost:

1. Identify something you care about. Extra bonus points if it's something that other people care about too, like right now with data centers / AI, evicting convicted felons (opens in a new tab) with 34 felons out of Presidency, or how abhorrent healthcare is in this country (opens in a new tab) and how expensive it is (opens in a new tab).
2. Find some people who agree with you, or at least share some of those sentiments.
3. Do something about it. That could mean:
   1. bringing up these concerns with your boss.
   2. or watching your city council hearings on YouTube (opens in a new tab) regarding policies that are being debated.
   3. or writing to your city council member about something you’re unhappy about.
   4. or making phone calls on behalf of a politician (opens in a new tab) you really stand behind.
   5. or googling if there’s a neighborhood council (opens in a new tab) you can join, to see what neighbors are doing.
   6. or asking friends and family what they’re doing, and do literally anything.

Massive impact can come from simply talking to your family and friends (opens in a new tab) about this, and seeing what they think and seeing what the end solution is, and what they’re doing in the meantime.

Just for fun, imagine this world…

where you and 60%, or even 30%, of a certain population, whether it's at work, your friend group, or a country, all agree and decide to collectively bring up these issues to people with decision-making power

What kind of world would that world look like, compared to this current world?

Small things

Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little things.
- Bruce Barton

The power of actions, even “small” ones, you realize that you do have power, and a lot of it. I don't know how to explain that other than if you experience that yourself.

And with “small things”, like attending a little neighborhood meeting, may turn into hearing about another organized group which meets to discuss political action at a local level, which turns into working with someone who works directly with legislators - as in, State and Federal senators - and you realize you now have an indirect line to very influential people.

And it all started with simply having a little conversation and going to this random little meeting.

“Politics” sucks

But... at the end of the day, so many issues we have - I argue - need to tie back to government. It’s not fun, but what other option have we? We already pay for this system, and you can’t really opt out of unless you completely disconnect and live in the woods in some remote location.

Scared to lose your job? Maybe if we didn’t have laws which tie healthcare to employment (opens in a new tab), rather than it being a basic human need.

The solution is government.

Worried about the environment and AI? Maybe being more closely connected with your City Council members, or your local government. You can have a say whether a data center goes up in your backyard (opens in a new tab), or if you could negotiate with the data centers to not spike electricity costs (opens in a new tab).

The solution is government.

Upset that GPU prices are so insanely expensive (opens in a new tab) because AI companies bought literally the world’s supply (opens in a new tab)? Imagine there was a limit on how much companies can buy. There are often limits to scarce things on how much each person can buy, but with companies there's just unlimited limits?

The solution is government.

We are government

Whether we call groups of people “government” or not doesn't change that there always is government; whether it's a pack of wolves who have leaders, assigned tasks per person, and work collectively to modern day United States where we have a big complicated structure of differing power dynamics, we all deal with government

And whether we like it or not, we pay taxes every year, so we may as well get the best out of money that we’re essentially forced to pay.