philosophical

money scripts: voting (part 2)

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To me, a money script is something that I believe I should do in connection to money, based primarily on something I absorbed as a child. I wrote earlier, that I was taught that it is important to vote, and this can actually provide financial benefits. As there are local elections coming up soon, I thought I’d discuss my second money script in connection with voting. This concerns who you should be voting for.

The script that I have, is that you shouldn’t vote for the person that will make you best off, but for the person that would be best for society as a whole. This is generally how I try to vote. If I think about it rationally, do I think that this is a good idea?

I try to be a good person as I live my life (as I’m sure most other people do). As part of this, I realise that I am very priviledged in comparison with people in the rest of the world. In fact, I’m priviledged in comparison with a lot of people living in my own country. A good person would try and do something about this and improve other people’s position. I’m trying to be a good person, so I should try and improve other people’s position and one of the opportunities I have, is through my vote. So, overall, I think that I should vote for the benefit of everyone, not just myself.

How does this impact on my personal finances? Well, it means that I sometimes vote for people and policies that will make me worse off financially. But it wouldn’t be better for society if I was a net beneficiary, so once policies are decided, I seek to minimise their negative effects on me. For example, I accept that raising the state pension age is beneficial to society and vote in favour of it, but to compensate, I plan to save and invest more so that this won’t harm me.

What do you think? Should a person interested in improving their personal finances vote for policies that will benefit them, or not?

Similar Posts:

• money scripts: voting (part 1)
• pensions are investments
• blog action day - poverty

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