A theme that stood out to me in recent chapters was the corruptibility
of authority. Power is a dangerous thing it seems in human society because the
more you have of it the more you want. In chapters 22-24 of The Grapes of Wrath
when the migrants are finally given a chance to construct a fresh society
without corrupt officials or legal red tape, they create an almost utopian
society where people help each other rather than only themselves. Those without
greed, the poor migrants, have never had any real power so they never inherited
the lust for money and control that the upper class did. The ironic thing is that having more money or
more power doesn’t make life any simpler, only more complex and aggravating.
Maybe a rich person no longer needs to worry about money, but what often
happens is that they end up being more concerned with it than ever before. Those that are born lower class have nowhere
to go but up. In many ways they are blessed with the abilities of compassion
and kindness because they understand the struggles of being associated with the
lowest rung of a societal hierarchy.
In the
Great Depression the rich got richer and the poor poorer. A rift between
classes that existed was widened. A similar thing is happening today as a
nation that is dominated by a middle class, has those people moving towards a
new identification: rich or poor. It is
ironic that in a country which has a government that is run by the people as a
whole, favors individualistic over group progression.
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| Rich Vs. Poor in America, but why is the middle class so fat? |
I agree with you that power has a noticeable correlation with corruption. What you wrote about more and making life easier seems to be true also. That also goes with what Casy said about the rich man being scared and weak in spirit.
ReplyDeleteIt's kinda crazy. People lose sight that we are all one nation. We are as only strong as our people. So it doesn't make sense when folk start to prey on other folk. I think people really started to see that when the Occupy movement began.
ReplyDeleteI am firmly entrenched in the middle class. I think the collective middle class point of view goes something like this; the rich don't need it and the poor get it handed to them, while the middle class just gets screwed. I respect the opinion of those who feel this way, but do not agree. Social welfare is necessary. There are always going to be people that abuse the system, but I don't feel that the ones that geniunely need help should be punished for this. As for the rich, I don't believe that they should pay a disproportionate amount of taxes than other classes. I also don't think they should get tax breaks through loop holes in the system as well.
ReplyDeleteWorking for what you get instills pride in an individual. I am not going to let the rich having money, or the poor recieving money affect the value of my life.