Just finished watching the series of a reality show: 窮富翁大作戰, and I am eager to write down my feelings and thoughts, especially during the times when Occupying Wall Street movement is still ongoing and expanding locally and globally.
Before I start to nag, just to give you a little background about the show – it’s a reality show based in HK, where inequality between the rich and the poor widens. Five people from the top of the society, despite what they had in real life, participated in the show by taking a role in the lower class struggling daily to have their needs met.
These five people, most of them have a descent upbringing that they never have to worry about money. They are well-educated and successful in their careers. Many of them, believe that your current situation is a consequence of the free-market battle, the weak ones are eliminated through competition. Moreover, they also believe that one’s current status is simply an outcome of previous planning or lack of planning. In the show, these five people live the life as people at the margin of the society – who live in “cage room”, work 2-3 jobs at minimum wages and barely pass by. These people – from the lower class, never benefited from the rise of free-market, they’re parents who cannot afford to provide their kids with better education and opportunities, so that their kids begin to loose the game at the starting point; they’re young people who don’t have opportunities for upward mobility, even if they try; they’re elderly who have nothing to rely on, except themselves, and who have nothing to hope for, except the end of life.
And often, these people are invisible, invisible to many of us, to the government, to the people at the other side of the game. In the show, the five people would work and live like them, and to learn or widen their perspective of poverty. Fortunately for them, the show is just an experience whereas it’s life to many others.
After watching the show, I couldn’t help but to relate it to the recent hot topic – OWS. Yes, many people, including many of my friends, questioned about the need and/or significance of the ongoing demonstration, and many of them didn’t even care. To be honest with you, although I protested and demonstrated, I didn’t fully understand the focus of it, the core messages and demands remained a bit ambiguous. Perhaps, I should have put it this way, what made it ambiguous and unclear was that we had too many problems and demands, and it is more complicated than just banking system, financial regulation, etc. Along those lines, inequalities and injustice are just ramifications.
The gap between the rich and the poor, with no doubts, is widening, ordinary people have less opportunities to advance and pursuit, resources have been unevenly allocated, the promise of American Dreams which emphasize on hard-work and accomplishment is broken – aren’t these problems daunted and exasperated? Should Wall Street be the only one to blame for all these issues? I don’t think so. Then who else? The government who is supposed to represent the majority but fails to do so? The protesters who might just be lazy people pointing fingers at others to justify their misfortune? Or million/billion dollar earners who lacks a sense of social responsibility? Maybe the answer is all of above.
I certainly don’t understand enough to talk about improving bank system and government policy. However, as idealist, there is something that I wish to see as a change. I am aware that the world is never going to be a fair place, but I wish to see the world to become a better place that everyone can work toward ensuring equality and justice.
I don’t hate the rich. To a large degree, I admire the rich, who have the talents, attributes, courage, efforts and opportunities to become who they are today. It’s surely more than a blessing. All I hope is that, they can also be aware of that, there are people who also work as hard as they do, just don’t make it. To the rich: God gives you the talent and ability to make a fortune, so you can help many others that don’t.
