Only 1.1% of the entire world’s population are millionaires, and only 0.0000375% are billionaires and yet, because of the system we live in, the top few people of the world’s richest people control 75% of the entire world’s global wealth. That’s insane! And yet people just ignore the fact of the matter and don’t seem to want to do anything about it. What I want is for the world to acknowledge how the top 0.000033% has power over the other 99.000067% and I want to fight back and rebuild the system in a new and fair way.
The greatest factor in deciding whether you will be successful in life has nothing to do with your work ethic, education, or knowledge. It is decided by who your parents are. The children of already wealthy and influential people are given a headstart so insurmountable that it takes many generations to be able to catch up and the way things are going it seems to be getting harder and harder to make progress in society. It is statistically proven that if your parents were millionaires you are significantly more likely to be a multimillionaire or billionaire when you grow up. This game of luck whether you are born rich or not should not be the way that society is set up for everyone, all people should have equal opportunity to live a successful life.
Though it all seems doom and gloom, there is still hope left to change society and help each other. One thing you can do to bring about change in your community is to speak up about issues that you notice. One of the main things stopping change in the world is that people are scared or uncomfortable to bring up lingering issues in their lives or in others lives. Just bringing it up can make a big difference in how people view the issue and cand bring the issue into the eye of many people who would never have known otherwise. If you are having trouble finding a way to bring it up, here are some suggestions on how to bring up the topic:
- You can use some sentence starters
- You can bring up statistics like I did at the beginning
- Bring up a related topic and transition the conversation
Another way you can help change the way society works is to support or join organizations that have the same goal as you. Another reason many people may not start speaking out on this topic is that they feel like they are alone or don’t know how they can do anything about it. There are many organizations dedicated to bringing attention to problems like this and even more that support people who are disadvantaged to stabilize the playing field. Some examples of organizations like this are Oxfam, Wealth Inequality Initiative, Fight Inequality Alliance, and more. These are just some organizations that you can donate to or join if you are passionate about this.
The final thing that you can do to help the cause is to use your own power to influence others in various places or ways. This is a very vast category that can range from sending a letter to your congressman to recording a call to action and posting it online on social media.These actions can bring attention to inequality which is a topic that does not get brought up enough. These little actions will eventually begin a movement that can not be stopped no matter how hard people may try. People will fight for equality just as we have in the past and we will continue to fight as long as injustice lives because “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”-MLK Jr.
Haniel Aklilu – Latin School of Chicago – DMSF Class of 2029
Photo Credit: StockCake