The power lies in the dollar. The rich and powerful have enormous hordes of cash. They’ve accumulated this perceived energy through the working class consumers. They are capitalist because they have capitalized on the spending patterns of the average person. We, as a society, are materialists, consumers, and the ones that run the world. Without our income, as low as it may be, the rich would be unable to capitalize on our spending patterns or our need to work for them. In effect, they need to pay us so that we may spend. The illusion of monetization and privatization must be upheld with the utmost scrutiny.

What we as consumers must realize is that we in truth have all the power. If everyone decided not to use Snapchat, and move to Instagram all at once, Snapchat’s value would be nothing aside from the physical liquefiable assets such as servers and data they may own, patents, and/or all owned properties. If everyone decided to stop buying bananas, they would cease to exist all together (with the exception of those capable of growing banana trees out of novelty). No one would have a financial incentive to create bananas. This goes for everything you can think of that is bought and sold globally.

If our internal desires spoke their virtuous ideals through our spending patterns, we would live in a more benevolent society. The wealthiest people would be the most accomplished in almost every aspect. The poorest would be the most ignorant and least creative. But even then if global apathy is as it is now, the poor would remain poor. If to be empathetic were a virtue, and if society upheld our virtues, there would be no poverty. The rich accomplished creatives would feel endowed with a sense of generosity; knowing that we all thrive if we all win. There is no unity with privatization, no patriotism with bipartisanship, no brotherhood with bigotry, no life with monetization.