In a prior post, I lamented the myths surrounding immigrants, and how the right exploits these myths to mislead and deceive their herds. In this post, I explore why the right does this.

1 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

The King James Bible

The right loves money. This much is exceedingly clear. You need only look at Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, and a host of others to see that financial gain lies at the heart of their interests. Making money is, above all else, the driving factor behind what they do. Slowly but surely, society is gradually waking up to this hunger, and any hint of awareness of where society’s problems truly come from is met with fear and fury from the right. Numerous smokescreens and bogeymen have been developed down the years to provide a distraction from the truth; immigration is the latest buzzword.

In some parts of the world – the USA is a prime example, though not the only one – the desire to place wealth ahead of the public interest has created social disasters. There is a huge inequality and inequity of not only wealth, but opportunity to earn it. The USA was once famously considered ‘the land of opportunity’. Nowadays, the rags-to-riches tales are incredibly rare, verging on as common as rocking-horse poop. This is because to get anywhere requires unfeasible sums of money for the average person, in a land where landlords charge extortionate fees to rent, and where buying a home on the average wage is virtually impossible. This system is deliberate, it props up the people who already have money, and whilst the average person struggles from paycheque-to-paycheque, the wealthy grow wealthier.

I have said it before that the means exist to put a serious dent in poverty. There are no excuses for the widespread prevalence of foodbanks in the United Kingdom, nor the number of homeless people. We are a first-world country, yet because of a biased right-wing media, and the careful manipulation of the system, any mention of anything along the lines of a universal basic income, or a drive to improve workers’ wages, is met with bogeyman cries of socialism and inflation. In the USA, this problem is even worse. People are left with choosing between feeding themselves and paying extortionate fees for medical treatment.

For reasons which are beyond me, this policy of profit ahead of people is rabidly defended. Whilst men like Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg hoard incredible wealth (Elon Musk alone is worth $269 billion, whilst Bezos is worth $205 billion, and Zuckerberg is worth $196 billion), there are people struggling to feed themselves, in the richest, most powerful country on earth. The average American earns $59,000 a year, in comparison.

In fact, a better comparison is the rate at which wages have risen. CEO pay has risen by 1,460% since 1978. That’s not a typo. The typical work wage rise? 18%. Companies like Apple are reporting pre-tax profits of $114 billion, the average sales consult with Apple earns $48,000 a year. Profits are up, yet wages do not rise with them, whilst consumer costs continue to rise. The trickle-down theory is by now long debunked, so why do people cling so tightly to the idea that this system, where the rich get richer and the poor find it harder and harder to make ends meet?

The reason why people are so reluctant to challenge the existing status quo is because they have been convinced by those in power (who happen to be the ones with money) that the existing system is unquestionable. Never mind that in several European countries, nationalised healthcare has reduced the financial burden on the working class, as well as providing good healthcare. There are host of measures in place to protect the interests of tenants, as opposed to landlords. Despite dire warnings, inflation has not crippled these countries. Fairer wages will not destroy them either.

Through all of this, we hear the cry ‘socialism, Marxism, communism!’ This is merely the slippery slope fallacy in operation. A wealth tax does not mean people cannot be wealthy. Directing businesses that are recording obscenely high profits to pay their workers better does not mean those companies cannot pay out good wages to those who have worked hard to climb the ranks. Even a small redress of the current, gross inequality of the current system would be better than maintaining a status quo that has failed, over and over and over again. Unfortunately, the people who worship money have convinced others to worship them, and with money comes influence, influence wielded to confuse and divide, along with scapegoat. Hence the current demonization of immigrants.