Money Can Buy Class

And all the other things you think it can’t buy except happiness, maybe

Growing up in Chandigarh, I have observed two types of people. The inheritors and the workers. There is nothing wrong with being either and your birth family is a matter of sheer luck. It is very easy for disgust to creep into our minds against these people who seem to have it so painfully easy in life. They don’t have to save for a new phone, a new laptop or the shiniest new shoes. They just have it. It’s like having a wish-granting, non-conniving genie in your pocket.

Photo by Jorgen Hendriksen on Unsplash

What a wonderful feeling to never let thoughts of the lack of material wealth come in the way of your dreams. What a wonderful feeling to not have the responsibility of feeding a family, managing debt, and paying rent.

Many of us reading this have this privilege. And the mere presence of privilege is not something to be ashamed of. At least that’s what I tell myself.

Most of my writing comes from overhearing things. I can’t help it. Maybe it’s bad manners but it really does plague my brain. What are manners anyway?

Sitting in a small cafe in Chandigarh, I was listening to a woman ranting passionately about the influx of new money, the lack of taste and the collapse of society as she knew it.

The disdain on her face as she said, “What do you expect? It’s new money.” was my favourite part of the conversation.

Maybe her disdain has some merit but this disdain comes from a place of exclusivity, the natural desire to leave behind and make it difficult for a newcomer and that is fair too.

If you try hard enough, you may be able to empathise with the wealthy. You may even understand their relentless need to peel the dignity off ‘others’ layer by layer. They assume everyone has money. It is taste that not everyone has. They are obviously wrong.

And you do become the subject of mighty abhorrence if you show the slightest bit of excitement when you claim to be able to afford something for the first time in your life.

It is the cardinal rule. Being excited about breaking a certain barrier of affordability and communicating it is social suicide. It would be best of you changed planets, if not glaxies. If you can afford something, remember that you have always been able to afford it. When you have it, you have always had it. And talking about it is terribly gauche lest there be questions around your certain step up.

This entitlement is akin to the boys-will-be-boys argument that is used to skilfully subvert and explain the worst excesses of the overly privileged.

Drivers of luxury cars were found to give pedestrians the right of way three times less than those driving less expensive vehicles; wealthy car drivers were also four times more likely to drive rashly and cut off others on the road, according to psychologists at the University of California, Berkeley.

I was once listening to someone speak in great detail about their investments, savings and their comprehensive knowledge of financial instruments that can be used to grow wealth. It was very impressive, but this wealth growth come from having no need of your money today or in the foreseeable future.

A few months ago, I was playing monopoly with a few friends. To my utter delight, my die rolls saved me from landing on two hotel properties that could have potentially bankrupted me. My friend who had constructed that hotel had spent a great deal of money (4 houses + hotel). Not having me land on that spot, deprived her of massive rent collection. In the next three or four turns, she ran out of money because she was unable to retrieve the money she spent on building the property and landed on some high-rent properties. I extended my sympathies at first and even attributed her bankruptcy to my sheer luck of not landing at her hotel. As the game progressed I saw some revenue collection that made me very rich. I was leaving change behind. I was on cloud nine. I was telling everyone how extremely intelligent and skilled I am. I went on to tell everyone that Monopoly is a game of life and skill and people who excel at it are in fact gifted and so truly brilliant that their business acumen matches the acumen of Tata, Birla and Ambani combined.

The trade of properties in Monopoly does require some skill but it is really just not worth this hefty appreciation. Haha.

I forgot my initial inequality and started feeling bloody swell about the entire situation. On reading a bit more I learned that my very normal behaviour can be explained a theory called social class essentialism.

Social class essentialism holds that people explain the superficial differences between their social class (such as economic, gender, race, sexuality) and others’ in terms of fundamental identity differences (such as genetics, work ethic, personality traits). Kraus and Keltner, after studying a diverse group of American adults, found the participants belonging to a higher socioeconomic class had a stronger belief about social class essentialism — meaning, their class privilege reinforced the idea that they belonged in that social class because they believed they had fundamental qualities that made them special and worthy (me).

Our inability to extend empathy comes from our lack of exposure and is a glaring side effect of being raised in a nauseously protective environment. I write this on my nice laptop in my nice blanket with no intention of giving up wither of these things in the service of humanity but what I do see myself doing is reeling in my thoughts before I sermonise others on acumen, skill and hardwork.

This understanding and justification of one’s own class privilege can also be supported by the just world theory, developed by psychologist Melvin Lerner in the 1960s. The theory suggests human beings are motivated to believe the world is a fair place because existence is just too painful otherwise. We believe that successful, wealthy people deserve their wealth because they worked hard for it. Since the world is a fair place, people from lower socio-economic classes must not work hard enough — if they had, then they would have gotten their fair share (not me).

But so much of life is just rolling the dice. Sometimes it’s good, other times is bad. Some things can be in your control but the die, it never is. Never is. Never is.

So, if you are under the insolent impression of your invincible skill, think again and if you still think it is your skill, think again and again till you’re finally humbled by this monstrosity called circumstance and an even bigger monstrosity called privilege.

This is just a thought bubble with the barest minimalist research which is not even so relevant but I am keeping this here for now. When I am older, I want to remember what my silly little brain thought. Now that it is an unerasable figment of the internet, I am glad I won’t lose it like I lost so many other things from when I was littler. This is also an appeal for you to make unerasable figments however terrible they may seem a few years later.

See you soon with better things to say, I hope.