The Rich Rule the Poor

The Rich Rule the Poor

By Keith Bunn Jr.

Judging the Rich

We've all heard it before that the rich people tend to rule over the poor people. That has been said for centuries. It was even said more strongly during our last recession and even as recent as our last presidential election. And in most respect, that is a true statement.

Now, don't get me wrong. This blog post isn't going to be about bashing the rich. In fact, I think that most wealthy families and/or individuals are good people who are judged too harshly solely based on that they have some money. And before someone judges me and my family, for the record, we're not wealthy at all. I just happen to know some wealthy people. I know their character and their heart. And for them, and others like them, to be judged as a whole the way that they are these days...  well, it's not really fair. 

The Book of Proverbs

Where I'm coming from with all of this, is a piece of scripture from the book of Proverbs. Now before those of you who are not religious start rolling your eyes, get mad and stop reading, I ask that you continue to read and hear me out with an open mind.

The scripture goes... "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is slave (or servant) to the lender" Proverbs 22:7. Now let's unpack and break this down for a bit. Let's take the first part, "The rich rules over the poor..." As we already said above, this is mostly a true statement. The wealthy are the ones who make just about all our rules, laws, and regulations we have to live by. And I'm sure you would all agree that no matter what government agency is made up to close the gaps between the classes in our culture, we will always have the poor among us.

Now for the second half. And it's this half that I really want you to think about. "...and the borrower is slave (or servant) to the lender". Obviously this part is talking about borrowing money from something or someone. One of the definitions to the word "slave" in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is a person who is strongly influenced and controlled by something. I think we can all agree that this is a true definition. Because when we borrow money, especially from a financial institution, we are "strongly influenced and controlled by" the contract we sign before we're given the money. This is also true when we borrow money from family and friends. Our emotions are all wrapped in the process of paying them back, sometime even more so because they are family and/or friends. That is why those relationships are stressed or destroyed when the borrower can't pay what is owed.

The Take Away from this Scripture

What gets me about this scripture is that it doesn't matter who you are, how old you are, what business it is, what church it is, what school it is, what government it is, etc... this scripture is 100% true. When you borrow money, you are being ruled by someone, and in all reality, you are a slave to that debt until it is paid off in full.

What do you think? Do you think this interpretation of Proverbs 22:7 is actuate?

Why I Do This

The reason I do this is to inspire and give hope to people. To make them think about their finances, whether they are young or old, so they can win financially.

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