You've probably heard some version of this: equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It's not pie.
And in some cases, I agree. When we're talking about human rights, we absolutely cannot treat them as a finite resource to be rationed. Human rights are basic freedoms that belong to every person simply for being human, regardless of race, sex, nationality, or religion and are outlined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But when we're talking about money, power, and authority? What we actually have is a distribution problem. And in that sense, it is pie.
Right now, a handful of people hold a disproportionate concentration of wealth, power, and control.
Billionaires and the richest 1% own more than 50% of the world’s total wealth. The poorest 50% own less than 3%.That’s a major wealth distribution problem and it continues to concentrate and get worse.
Tech companies consolidate and control not only social media and technology, but have increasing influence over policy and political power. Media companies are merging and controlling massive shares of voice — who gets to speak and be heard, and who does not.
This is not metaphorical. The literal pie is split so a very small number of people have almost all of the pie, and the vast majority of people are dividing up the very little that is left.
Changing that distribution problem will not be easy.
Here's the part I think we need to get honest about: if we are going to create more equal systems — economic systems, power systems, leadership systems — then some of the people who currently have way more than their share are going to have to lose some of it. The distribution is going to have to change.
The reality is, those folks who currently have so much, the billionaires for example? They already know that greater equality would cost them. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out. It's why they're fighting so hard to keep it.
We need to know it too.
Fighting for systems that are more equal is by its very nature, disruptive. It's going to require dismantling systems that currently benefit some people enormously and disadvantage other people enormously. And I think we're living in that moment right now — the friction and instability we're feeling is, at least in part, because the systems of inequality are reaching a breaking point. We are seeing those unequal systems for what they are, and how those with wealth and power have abused the systems to further compound that wealth and power.
This is exactly the moment in time to keep applying pressure to those systems. Because in order for reform to happen there needs to be pressure to change.
We have agency here. A lot of it, actually. I think we need to be realistic and use our critical thinking to analyze the systems and not just accept the narratives we are fed by the people who benefit from upholding them.
It’s time to be a little less nice about the change we want to see. Not less kind — less nice, less polite, less patient, more clear.
Equality has a cost. It costs those who have had more than their share. The sooner we're honest about that, the better equipped we are to take action.
Let me know where you’ve been seeing this in the world and what it’s bringing up for you.
— Belinda
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