Why I find the notion that 'the rich get richer because the poor think every opportunity is a scam' to be utter nonsense - Bird Lovegod

He was using it to generate engagement and make a point about mindset. But the main feature of the post was the statement,

“The rich get richer because the poor think every opportunity is a scam” in big letters, with an image, constituting an advert for his ‘lead generation’ company.

What are your thoughts on this topic, he requested.

So I told him. “I think it’s verging on insult. Hope that helps.” Pithy, but lacking detail.

He enquired what made me think that. “I suppose it’s my experience, humanity, and common sense.”

A few days later, still needled by the post, I went into the subject a little more.

“Alright, I’ll explain. The rich get richer largely because the rich, individually and collectively, have created the systems and structures of wealth. Embedded in those structures is the intention to increase that wealth. It’s the function of the machine.

“Coupled to this is the intention to maximise wealth for the people running the machine/system/world. So the rich get richer because the systems they have built are designed that way. In addition, they choose not to redistribute that wealth, but to use it to generate more, again, for themselves. QED. It has nothing whatsoever to do with poor people thinking opportunities are scams.

“The majority of poor people are poor because of the circum-stances they are born into. The same is also true of ‘the rich’. I found your post offensive because it does, in fact, state the rich get richer because the poor think every opportunity is a scam. This is false, and ‘blames’ the poor for the situation.

“It’s a massive falsehood, generalisation, and inversion. The post implies that the poor are to blame for the inequalities, as well as their own poverty. It’s counter to everything right and true. It neutralises compassion and humanity, it’s a harmful mindset to spread. Shall I continue?”

He didn’t seem keen, correctly identifying that I was not one of his echo chamber bubble of LinkedIn ‘leaders and coaches’.

A fair number of whom fully agreed that the poor were indeed poor because of their faulty mindset and not because of the glaring direness of the situation they are born and raised in.

I have no problem with the rich getting richer. What I have immense problem with is the rich not using those riches to alleviate the suffering and untimely death of the poor. The greatest ‘sins’ of humanity and this world is not what we do, it is what we do not do.

There is a sliver of difference between wilfully killing a thousand people and wilfully not saving the life of a thousand people. The outcome is the same. A thousand people die. This graphene thin slice of morality, it’s terrible to kill but totally acceptable not to save lives when one could, is the dividing line between our civilisations and a totally different world.

Not saving a life, when one could, not saving a thousand lives, when one could, not saving a million, or a billion, or all of them… That’s on all of us. But especially those who could do so on a whim, who could raise millions from poverty, lift entire countries from poverty, and choose not to.

Imagine someone kills a thousand people on the streets today. Outrage. Imagine someone buys a picture rather than saving a thousand lives today.

A thousand died in both cases. And in the second, we applaud. And call it success. And that is the greatest outrage.