You have heard me discuss the nature of value, but what about the credit for your efforts?

This is of course a variance on value, but credit can be in any form.

Look at the credits on films, on television, on media production. You get some sort of compensation but also are noted as having been involved, of having had a specific role in the creation of something being viewed, consumed, experienced.

So, when they finish a task, a job, credit is due. But what about what you do in everyday life? What about helping others? What about what you do for financial compensation?

Is credit due for your efforts?

Of course it is. Everything you do in life, that can benefit one person, or thousands, is due credit for what you have accomplished.

Is that how it works today?

Of course not.

People get rich by making the right moves that make people think they have a great idea that can make everyone involved rich, no matter the true long-term value of what they do, and if they manage to pull it off, they, and their backers, get rich.

But what have they achieved? Truly, what is it they have done to create this fortune?

A new product, or variant on an existing product, mixed, transformed, sold by the best persuasion money can buy, to a market hungry for the next best thing, and before you know it, a best seller is born.

Does it change the world?

Sometimes.

But does it make life better?

Maybe.

But given what is considered valuable these days, and I do mean technology, what has it truly done for your life?

I mean I enjoy it too, but it’s no Gardasil. It’s not penicillin, antibiotics, soap, fire, any of the things that have made our lives longer or healthier.

Is credit due for what they have done?

Yes, I would agree, but not as much as they do get, and not more than educators or medical staff. Those who truly help and change our lives are nowhere near as rewarded as those who can create spectacle, produce a new toy, build a new distraction. Does that sound okay?

If our system, if our culture, was honest, was truthful about value, about which people truly contribute to our lives, our community, our society, imagine what a world it would be.

And maybe we wouldn’t have to hear so much about those who only seem to want to enrich themselves.

You see credit is due to those who contribute, those who care, those who truly make an effort for us all.

Credit is due to the carers, the protectors, the dedicated, those who are willing to go beyond, to sacrifice, to be the people we need them to be so our lives can go on.

-Marissa Klotzbucher, Thoughts and comments for public consumption