Otherwise, They Collapse

I have had friends who have made more money than I have, and their perspective of the world drastically changed as times became more difficult. Since I started my life out with money, I completely understand their perspectives, and one of my closest friends kept her sense of self, but knows how much her life has changed because she started without money. There is no comparing the differences in our lifestyles, and it is one of the reasons that I sometimes wish I had been more pliant when the occasions arose, because authentic people stay poor. We often talk about how our views have evolved, and since we met in college, we look around at the institutions and what they mean to others. By our observation, we have discovered that without socioeconomic inequality, all these institutions would collapse.

Take college for example, since people are still trying to push their kids to get educated at “good schools” and make a lot of money. Thanks to the tech boom, people are now started to move away from college, which means that a lot of departments are about to lose doctoral applicants and the funding that could have come with them. Students are starting to realize that colleges deliberately inflate their worth so that graduates will be saddled with debt and forced to work low-paying jobs to gain their freedom. If the students are rich, they use college to network and maintain that wealth, and they show very little interest in communicating with “those beneath their station.” If people were able to go to college for less money or free, universities would be exposed for the frauds they are, and the conferences and thinktanks would be finished.

Church is another major institution, and a lot of people are confused about the idea that having an imperial pope–which is kind of an oxymoron–means that the Vatican will become radical in some way. Within the church community, the most faithful and fervent followers are some of the poorest members of the church, while the richest members have a distasteful habit of showing up for their reputations and networking. As a former gospel choir director, it all seems really simple: when people have resources, they believe that they have everything they need to solve all the problems they have. Poorer people have been taught to internalize an obvious unwillingness to share, and we have been told to work harder for the approval of people, which is supposed to give us God’s favor to make our lives easier. If rich people had a lot less and poorer people had a little more, a lot of churches would dissolve without becoming mutual aid hubs for people in a very localized community.

The fuel of the dominant narrative is the societal belief in institutions, and that such institutions want the best for everyone involved, which is why they deserve unmitigated power. Sharing that power is out of the question, which is why all radicals lose money and have limited influence on the minds of the populace. However, with all of the resources being hoarded, people have become more radicalized anyway, a conclusion that the hoarders never thought we would reach. After all, why would people want to keep working when we can barely survive even if we work overtime and denigrate ourselves in the process? It is my belief that more people are going to stop trusting institutions because instead of uplifting anyone, institutions serve to perpetuate themselves. No one can spend a life without resources catering to the whims of entities that require constant validation.