Money Over Anything

Money Over Anything

Since America values money and wealth a lot, inequality continues to happen. America sees wealth as something that defines a person and their family so the more wealthy you are, the better off you are in a society. Most of the time, wealth is passed down from generation to generation. By passing down the money, that means that “the wealthy possess greater financial opportunities that allow their money to make more money.” (The Guardian). Since the wealthy have more money and are becoming richer, they have more access to healthcare and have more opportunity to travel and have fun. Another thing is that wealthy families tend to socialize with wealthy people/ people in their social class which means that lots of exclusion happens. Many people nowadays dream to be wealthy just like Gatsby did in the Great Gatsby. They try to show as much money as they can to try to get into the wealth circles so that they can live a possibly better life. While reading the Great Gatsby, that type of reality was very apparent in the 1920s. Inequality and bias still occur since America values money and wealth more.

In the 1920s, it was expected of a person to marry and interact with people from their social class. For example, Daisy married Tom Buchanan who “gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars” (76). Both Tom and Daisy had money and came from wealthy upbringings, it came as no surprise that they got married. Since they got married, that means that their wealth cumulates together and lets them stay in their social class. Daisy couldn’t marry Gatsby because “He had no comfortable family standing behind him” (149). Since he didn’t come from a wealthy family, he couldn’t marry Daisy because it was expected of her to marry into a rich and high standing family.

Being wealthy also means more access to healthcare and a healthy lifestyle. In America, healthcare is becoming more and more expensive which means that there’s a lot of unequal opportunities. There are a lot of expenses to be paid if you are to be hospitalized or in need of treatment and if you have little or no money, it becomes difficult to be treated.When you are wealthy, you are able to pay for certain life saving medications like insulin and EpiPens and pay for hospital visits. For example, “between 2007 and 2016, the producer of Epipens, Mylan, raised the price of epipens by over 500%, from about $100 to over $600” (Junior Theme). Epipens are a very popular treatment for when you have an allergic reaction and with the prices rising, that means that the wealthy are the only ones that can afford to keep buying them. When you do go to the hospital without insurance or little money, you will end up paying much more than someone who is insured because there is no insurance to bring down your cost. Since money and wealth are extremely valued, that means that there is inequality in things like medicine. 

Since wealthy people have a lot of money to spend, they are able to travel a lot or do crazy fun things. For example, after Daisy had their daughter “they went to france for a year. I [Jordan Baker] saw them one spring in Cannes, and later in Deauville, and then they came back to Chicago to settle down.”(77). Since they had money to spend, they were able to move around a lot and live their lives very well. If you’re poor, you're stuck in one place and can’t afford to leave or make the most out of your situation. Another good example is the story The Rich brother. “Pete, the other brother, was in real estate… he had two brothers, a sailboat, a house from which he could see a thin slice of the ocean” (73) while “Donald, the younger brother… lived alone, painted houses when he found the work, and got deeper in debt to Pete when he didn't”(73). When you’re rich, you have opportunities to live a fun life like Pete who has a sailboat and can see some ocean from your house. When you're poor like Donald, you cannot afford much luxury and possibly have looming debt which means you can't travel or do fun things. There’s a lot of inequality on how people spend their money and if they have enough money to spend.

Since wealth is a large American value, it leads to lots of inequality and has been shown in lots of aspects. Wealthy people have money passed down so that lets them live a better life than less fortunate people who don't have money given down to them. The wealthy leave the poor in the dust and live a large life. Since at least the 1920s, Americans have been living this way which means wealth inequality keeps growing. When the rich marry the rich, that means that the poor can only marry people that are also poor since the rich don’t want to share their wealth or they will be looked down upon. It’s an endless cycle for wealth and inequality and there's possibly no end in sight.