The flip side to this is how many hard-working people will NEVER be wealthy even though they are doing important things. That’s where capitalism fails us.

The argument is always that capitalism is better than communism. Yet, I could construct a good argument about how capitalism harms us all. One quick example: We barely pay the people who care for our children and elderly. We don’t value this work, because it doesn’t create wealth. We don’t value the well-being of humanity at all.

I dedicated my life to community journalism. My goal was to do good work that mattered. My career really served my community well, but I never made much money doing it. I was OK with that, as I knew I wouldn’t make money and that wasn’t my goal. I cared much more about serving democracy than building up personal wealth.

But I did not anticipate, at the time I chose my career in 1984, that newspapers would implode. I have paid the price for that. It all fell apart at a point when I was too old to easily change careers. An entire generation of people like me was screwed.

I’d have been better off if I had selfishly cared only about myself and had pursued a career that would have made more money, but I felt very strongly about journalism. Of course, some lucky people are called to do things that actually pay well. The system serves those people, but not the rest of us.