I want to write about this years Thanksgiving. You’ll forgive me, because my reason for doing so is to comment on commerce.
My family is a wonder to me. Large and harmonious. I think (guess) that represents less than a third of all families in the U.S. The total members of my family who came this year was 41. Three people were friends of family members. My three brothers and their families 10, my kids and their spouses and grandkids and their mother 12, my partner and her offspring 7, my first cousins and their spouse and offspring 9. The total was 41 (stock photo).
The missing are important. One committed suicide years ago, two are incompetent and are under appropriate care and one husband, not native born, doesn’t consider himself a real member of this family.
Part of the reason a family this size is functional is because all the parent child relations that I know about were free of trauma Many of the adults seem to live in a state of happiness, evident in many forms of solitary sports such as running, swimming, hiking and biking.
I know each family member well. If I were anywhere in the world outside of the U.S. I would be socially compelled to consider a family member as an employee in my various businesses. Certainly in all of the Americas south of the U.S., Africa, the Middle East, India, South Asia and China; nearly everywhere I would be compelled to give preference to hiring family members. On a personal level I know that wouldn't work.
As explained in this blog, that whole idea doesn’t work very well in modern commerce. In modern commerce we operate on meritocracy which overrides family preferences. Meritocracy is an important reason that commerce is so productive and family based business nations aren’t.
In talking about family, there are always some people who can't make it and the family can't or won't care for them. This is also a good place to mention the consequence of those former family members: ‘homeless’ in many names, ‘street people’, ‘hobos’, ‘street urchins, ‘beggars’ and outcasts.
We have always had them in our societies and always will. They are part of any population of human offspring.