My 2021 Pledge
To everyone on this list along with the countless hundreds of others i wish I could help support, there’s a very simple reason you’re on here (or should be).
From my vantage point, I’ve found that for whatever reason the world is a slightly better place with you in it. Whether what you do is activism on behalf of humanity, creating entertaining and interesting content or simply being wonderful people deserving some love and support, you find yourselves on this list because I want to do my part to give back.
I’ve thought long and hard on how to give back to my community, finally realizing that perhaps I could start a project I’ve dubbed “The 1% Initiative”.
The idea behind this initiative is that every year I will donate 1% of my yearly earnings to those I have deemed worthy of it. So if I hypothetically made 100,000$ a year, I would have 1000$ to give spread out among the 1 percenters. Unfortunately I don’t have that kind of income, but I’ll nevertheless do what I can. My logic is that if I can’t give back a single percent, I have either:
Mismanaged my money,
Become a selfish bastard,
Or I’m in need of help myself.
To that end, I’m happy to say I don’t currentlyfit into any of these categories. This path does lead to some transparency however, as I will be disclosing what 1% of my earnings are which could be used to calculate the sum total. There’s no need however, I’ll save you the trouble.
I make approximately 37,120$ yearly, of which 1% is 372 rounded up (I like cleaner numbers. While I’m at it, let’s make it 400).
I could have kept the amount undisclosed but my intentions are slightly more nuanced than mere transparency (though even on its own it’s a valid reason).
Given that I’ve dedicated myself to making this world better than I left it, one of the ways I believe we could achieve this is by normalizing the disclosure of one’s salary.
This secrecy serves only the corporates who have tirelessly worked to create and enforce this new societal taboo. By creating an environment of communication and wage transparency we can help more individuals obtain fairer wages, while simultaneously helping expose ongoing injustice and inequality in the workplace.
It’s not much, but baby steps are better than nothing and I wish to lead by example, so here we are with 400$ to spread amongst those who deserve recognition for their efforts.
So what must one do to make the cut? Well, this list is entirely subjective. What will go into my 1% may not be the same as your own (where you to make one, of course).
For example, I have a great love for one of my childhood games that persists strong to this day, Minecraft!
As such, the Minecraft streamers and youtubers that have entertained me will get consideration. Tit for tat & all that.
An example would be the entire Hermitcraft community, to whom I wouldn’t pay separately but give a sum total fund given the importance of every Hermit. I may not watch every player personally, but that’s an unfortunate reality of working a more than full time job with added adult responsibilities. So for their contribution to my life, I will be giving back.
But maybe games aren’t your thing, that’s fine. What about video essays? Another 1% for my list would be the likes of Contrapoints for her outstanding production quality, relevance and sheer entertainment value.
Or maybe you’re into learning for its own sake. Look no further than Kurgestagt or Veritaserum.
Not into YouTube? What about contributing to Wikipedia? They provide an incredible service absolutely free of charge and require our donations to not only survive but develop further!
But, if globalized information databases aren’t your thing, what about various charities and well meaning organizations? Even your local food shelter counts.
Just as relevant but just as often ignored would be our beloved workers within the sex industry whom we watch freely on sites like PornHub. The industry is so rife with abuse and misogyny that I find myself wadding through dangerous waters but a few names stand out.
Take Riley Reid. After several years in the sex industry, she grew frustrated with how little autonomy and influence the workers had over their work. She has since launched a website with the goal of helping her fellow sex workers regain a portion of their self-governance, not to mention that she’s an absolutely radiant human being and it shows both within and beyond her work.
As a rule of thumb, I generally try to avoid placing millionaires on this list, but I feel that at least for one year Riley Reid has earned a spot on this board, for numerous reasons. This is without even mentioning that she can serve as an early catalyst to explore the world of sex work more deeply to uncover its secrets and dissolve its taboos.
It may seem odd to some that I’ve decided to include the sex industry in my 1% Initiative, but why wouldn’t it deserve a place here? As I’ve said, this is about giving back to those that have provided me (and the community) with their time and labour. Sex work, gaming, activism and whatever else.. it doesn’t matter. It’s about recognition and giving back. And just because something is on my list doesn’t mean it would have to be on yours 😉.
There’s also something else I’d have you keep in mind. I literally had this idea a month ago while shoving half a ton of cheese into a box (really).
This is very early concept and will take many forms as the years draw on. This year, I will be manually selecting my 1 percenters and partitioning the 400$ among them. In later years, I hope to make something a little more concrete that others could even participate in.
I would love to one day see a platform rise from this concept, where much like Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee we could find and select those we wish to give back to.
Various systems in place could, depending on your selected preference, distribute the amount you set to those you selected.
Added features could allow you to send a comment with your donation, to see how much creators are receiving in order to choose whether or not to support some smaller creators and so, so, so, so much more that I truly can’t just get into otherwise this will quite literally be thousands of words long on its own.
Besides, down the line I plan to incorporate this into an early version of something that for now I’m calling The Everything Solution, but again, won’t get into that. No more getting sidetracked!!
So here’s my 2021 Pledge.
I will compile a list of people that I feel have made life better this last year. 1% of my yearly salary before taxes (400$) will be split amongst them out of goodwill.
This is done in the hopes of giving back to my community, and showing that their work, their effort and their dedication is worth at least 1% of my “worth”. This is done neither for praise nor reward. It is simply showing my thanks to the community that has already given so much.
Thank you,
-Alex
