“The price of wealth…. It is beautiful is it not?” And yet so easily such a price cannot be compared to the depravity of the poor. And yet… whether there is truly such a difference between the lifestyle of the rich and the lifechoice of the poor… only the truthful know for sure.”
When dealing or defining wealth, the most common perceptions is a few simple, one-word summaries: rich, powerful, bourgeoisie, affluent, Donald Trump, loaded, Green Giant, highballer, player, bling-bling, extravagant, insecure, snobby, stuck-up, etc. The list goes on and on. But no matter what synonym is used, there is always one underlying detail that pervades the entire air: the bank one lives in, is his church.
The same, can be said for Poverty as well. Like Wealth, Poverty is a cruel mistress capable of kindness and utter depravity. She can mean the difference between Life and Death like Wealth, and is also held by common one-word labels: destitute, raggedy, misbegotten, filth, penniless, ghetto, uneducated, unethical, immoral, cheap, welfare, etc. The underlying detail that defines Poverty is this: no matter the hours toiling in the dirt, one still owes money for the house.
You must understand, that the concept of wealth in itself is nothing more than an innocent belief; it is as harmless as the idea of forgoing all physical intercousre of any kind: it is merely a lifestyle.
The power of wealth knows no bound, however, and because of this, its conceptional forethought has been often distorted by the Sins of the Flesh.
But like all forms of pitiful existence, Wealth is its own poverty in and of itself: loneliness, insecurity, paranoia. These are just pebbles in the mound of relentless tortures that plague the wealthy, and others of higher class. However, unlike the vastness of Wealth, Poverty is by far the most restricting of existences; like the lack of sufficiency to maintain even affording a loaf of bread.
Nevertheless, the lives of the higher and the lower are not different as one would believe. There are even those whose lifestyles reflect classes they know unconsciously know so little of. The are poor people who like to wear expensive clothes and eat exotic delicacies and have expensive trinkets, despite their economic disadvantages. Once, less than 2 out of every home in America ran on electricity, since at the time technology was still in its baby steps; nowadays it is all to common to see a normal bus driver with a small paycheck live off that for 2 months, and yet still be able to afford a 72-inch flat screen with dual surround sound along with an Xbox 360, iPad, iPhone 5, and a Kindle Pro.
But the same can be said vice versa for the rich. Though small in numbers, there are a select few who live as if their paycheck could be deducted at any moment, and thus continue to survive on whatever form of pitiful existence allows them to maintain their themselves as an individual. There are some who wear the garb of homeless people, merely out of preparation for the inevitable. There are some who work as farm hands despite being the CEO of the land development company that owns the farm.
Thus, it matters little the consequence or the action, but rather the hypocrisy of the mundane to live life in reverse. Why do the rich live like they receive monthly welfare checks? Why do the poor live like kings despite having monthly rent and car notes to pay?
To say the rich are better off than the poor is both a half truth and a half lie. To say the fine lines between the two is as thick as oil is lie: the line is as thin as air, dissolvable and yet still ever watchful ready to strike at a moment's notice.
The power of wealth can bring the elongation of life to an almost unlimited standstill, but the price of such a momentous gain, however, is that the mundanity of such a prolonged existence would eventually destroy whatever soul the wealthy have. The increase of the gold would only increase the likeliness of death not physically, but mentally, emotionally, and psychologically. The same can be said for the poor. But, for those unable to afford an apple or taxi, the likeliness of death is even higher if they cannot afford the cure for Cancer, or the Fountain of Youth.
Look at the film Elysium. Starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, Elysium is about a futuristic Earth separated by two classes: the wealthy and the poor. The middle class has been destroyed, and the planet has become the ultimate breeding ground for war: too many humans, too little resources, too much time being wasted, and a whole lot of death and destruction. Meanwhile, the rich and powerful and the famous have long since fled the planet, in exchange for an orbital space habitat that is half as large as the moon. Dubbed Elysium, only those as powerful as the Pope and rich as Donald Trump can afford to live and stay here permanently.
Supposedly, the station is a haven for the life to continue and for the survival of the human race to thrive. In actuality, it’s a Death Star. When the systems are reprogrammed and the internal mechanisms rebooted, the entire facility can be used to destroy any place on Earth, taking the inhabitants of Elysium along with anyone in 50 kilometer radius of the impact zone.
Another example, can be the most popular book of 2008: The Hunger Games. Like Elysium, the Earth has been destroyed, and what remains of humanity has become a divided culture. Those who live in comfort live in the Capitol, a megacity with technological advancements capable of terraforming the land, and reanimating dead corpses into mutated weapons. In the lands outlying are districts designed to supply the Capitol with the supplies needed to survive. To keep the districts inline, the Capitol institutes a gladiatorial tournament system designed to keep the districts docile.
Though life in the districts is hard, and death is common to those without the money to survive, life in the Capitol is far worse. Surgical enhancements that defy physical nature, genetic mutations bred to kill, drinks that make one vomit so he can eat more food.
Life in the Capitol….
No, life in wealth, is far worse than life in poverty.
But when you really think about, it’s really not.
In the end, the greatest thing that neither of the two can escape is the simple truth: Wealth of the physical existence is both a blessing and a curse. It can be give and yet taken. It can be made and yet destroyed. And yet so fragile an existence such as this, is just as equatable to the riches of the earth: mud, rags, and filth. The barter of the poor.
Therefore, when the world comes crashing down, and the veil that divides the two is torn asunder…
The only escape from which is either Faith, or Death.
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