The Purge: Why The Gap Between Rich And Poor Is About Knowledge
Not All Knowledge Is Equal
While watching ‘The Purge Anarchy’, I could see some themes and principles that reflect society and where things are heading.
We have all heard of the top down view of the world, where a few people at the top control a lot of what goes on.
Well, this movie, to me, revealed a lot about economics. Whether people like to admit it or not, finances, money, currency, coupled with knowledge can help bring freedom and safety in the world, to an extent.
It is one thing to have the right resources to navigate through life, and accomplish our goals and aspirations. It is another thing, to know exactly what to do with those resources, in order to make our hopes and dreams a reality.
There is knowledge shared among certain groups in society, particularly those that are rich, which helps to keep wealth and resources circulating and accumulated within those groups.
We live in an information age. Knowledge has never been so abundant, yet it has never been so important to the development of our lives and the world.
Unlike, how it was in the industrial age where the emphasis was on cheap labour and brute strength, even more, knowledge has an exponential impact on the productivity of our economy.
The difference between the rich and the poor is knowledge. The quality of our knowledge will determine the quality of our mindset or state. The quality of our state, will eventually determine the quality of our estate.
How we think, and the knowledge we are exposed to makes all the difference.
I believe a recession is the result or the outcome of the need for an economic purge.
It is simply, the result of the fact that when we keep living in a system based on debt, human nature, or the flaws of mankind such as greed, will contribute towards the need for a huge clean up.
These factors will always guarantee that debt will be so overwhelming that an economic reset will be needed to re-stimulate the economy.
A recession and economics has a lot more to do with human behavior and a lack of discipline, than anything else. The problem is, only those that have the right knowledge, many of which are already rich, or out of debt, will be wise enough to come out of mass economic unrest.
The idea that the gap between the rich and he poor, the have and have not’s, is widening, is a fact. Research by the London Health Observatory, and The Equality Trust shows that, in the UK alone, the gap between the rich and the poor has been widening for the past 30 years, and has reached an all-time high.
The difference in life expectancy between the rich and poor, in the UK, has increased by 41% for men and 73% for women in the last 20 years. This research came out in January 2014.
This gap affects expectations concerning all kinds of areas regarding quality of life, including health and education. The sad thing is, in the UK, this gap grows each month.
The economist Robert Reich explores some important issues in his documentary ‘Inequality for All’. In the US, middle-class wages have stayed the same or fallen since the 1970’s. This happens irrespective of an increase in nation-wide economic productivity.
Furthermore, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio in the US has risen by 1000% since the 1950’s. Consumers have less and less to spend, yet 70% of the US economy is dependent on consumer spending.
“I see pitchforks … It is the masses that are the source of growth and prosperity, not us rich guys.”
-Nick Hanauer, American billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist
It is a universal principle that the burrower is under or restricted by those they owe.
Not only do we have to be financially literate in order to avoid the negative outcomes of the purge, we have to have business and investment intelligence in order to profit or use the purge to our advantage.
After all, you can never grow muscles without pressure.
Some will profit, while others that lack the knowledge or ignore it, will suffer. The purge is about more the survival of the fittest. Those that are well informed can have a vantage point which allows them to look above all the madness.
You do not have to be struggling to make ends meet, look beyond a ground level perspective.
Ways to build a strong foundation:
1. Invest in yourself, with personal development material- have specific goals for your life and get to understand what makes you unique.
2. Read, read, and read some more. Readers are leaders, there is a wealth of knowledge out there- learn about the things relevant to what you do, and want to go.
3. Develop skills that compliment your talents and be committed to being excellent at them.
4. Spend two hours at least, every other week, thinking about ways to increase your quality of life and that of those around you. What very few people do in times of trouble is think.
Instead, they react to everything going on, and allow life to dictate what they do. The best investors understand that they cannot let their emotions get in the way of universal wisdom.
5. Find ways to constantly build multiple streams of income, invest what you have, serve others by adding value with what you have, and to expand your thinking.
Just like in the film, The Purge, overcoming challenging financial times is more about street smarts.
It is understanding basic, foundational principles, like building multiple streams of income, budgeting, learning how to invest and staying out of debt, managing risk, discipline and patience, with little technical knowledge.
Anybody can save, the same way anybody can pull a trigger. But knowing how to aim a gun, or having goals and putting your savings to good use, so it works for you, takes more than what the average person knows.
In order to overcome any purge, you have to be prepared. And that means knowing a bit more about basic principles that govern the world, than most people, so that you do not make the same mistakes as the majority.
Some may argue that there are other factors or variables that lead to wealth inequality. Yes, but my reply is that, these factors are symptoms or still a result of us living in an information age.
Factors like globalisation, technological innovation, and the skills gap, all go back to knowledge and what we do with it. That is the context and reality of our time.
Feel free to like this post, and share if you think that others may benefit from reading this post. You can also give me a shout on twitter, I promise not to bite:@LesliePoku
