Once a pauper, always a pauper?

Once a pauper, always a pauper?

By Mahera Chowdhury

It is an undeniable fact that there is a clear disparity between the upper and lower class. No matter how much you argue against this fact and say that “ we are all equal” or “ vote Labour”, we need to acknowledge the truth that us, humans, are greedy and selfish creatures that put ourselves at the center of our own universes, hence the reason why money does make the world go round, in order to feed our hunger for greed.

Now let us talk about our class system. Although our government have some precautions to prevent homelessness and poverty (via the benefit system, which can easily be scammed and used to the advantage to many undeserving people and causes a whole other issue entirely), we could never be equal; especially in today’s society built on the foundations of colonialism and basic capitalism.

We have the concept of old money, which has been passed down through generations therefore making some families automatically wealthy – this money could have been obtained through trading (which was widely popular back then), including the trading of slaves. To be honest, it really is not that much different from the way some billionaires (through new money) have become so successful.

They overwork and underpay their workers, exploiting countless lives, for their own personal gain. With the power to end world poverty and feed numerous starving children around the globe, you would think that these billionaires, such as Jeff Bezos would start charities or give massive donations on a daily basis. What a joke. Although in 2018 he started his Bezos Day One Fund to fund preschools and aid homelessness, he has only donated $200 million of the $2 billion he has pledged. Of course $200 million is still a lot of money to do good with, don’t get me wrong, but this is coming from a man who makes $321 million a day off the backs of millions of workers who do not even receive a thousandth of that wealth.. Yet, we hear nothing else from him. As our world suffers – even through the pollution their companies cause – we still hear nothing. Complete radio static. Where did their moral duties run away to? What could they possibly be doing by hoarding all of that money? Money that they are undoubtedly never going to be able to spend in their lifetime.

I am sure that many of you have heard of the term “Rat Race”, if not then in very simple words the “Rat Race” is an expression to describe how we live for the endless pursuit of a reward (most likely something that could never satiate our desires no matter how long we try). For example, we are born, we go to school, get an education, get a job, earn money. That’s it. We are in this endless cycle of earning money because we can not live without it. We are taught from the beginning of our lives to grow up and earn money. Money, money, money. Therefore, we all fall into this trap set up by the bourgeoisie so we could never earn anywhere near the amount that they make in a day.

Now we must ask, does our socioeconomic background affect our future careers and salaries? Well, according to a study, working class employees are more likely to receive a lower salary compared to their more affluent colleagues and less likely to get a promotion. Although this was a study with a sample size of 90,000 UK residents, it shows a decent indication of how the real world works and how everything is rigged to make sure that those born at the bottom, stay there.

I know this all must seem slightly pessimistic and negative but we do not need to let our backgrounds define who we are. We will be able to achieve our own goals through hard work and determination.

I shall see you guys at the top.