We get it. Things are really tough for a lot of us – if not all of us – right now. The world seems to have been turned upside-down and we are all suffering. Many of us are concerned about rent, food to eat, school, or even the health of our family members. The world is riddled with fear and confusion and we all want nothing more but for this season to come to an end. I completely understand how frustrating this can all be, as I, just like you, am in this mess. However, I can’t help but to be disappointed by the amount of hate and blame I’ve seen being thrown at the wealthy during this time, so I’ve got to speak on it. Maybe some of you logged off after that last sentence, and that’s fine. What needs to be said will be said; demonizing the rich is not the cure to the coronavirus, so stop doing it.

Many of us grew up in underprivileged communities – like myself. Maybe we struggled a lot growing up. Our parent(s) worked their ass off to keep a roof over our heads and send us to college, only for us to get hit with thousands in student loans. We are tired of the financial insecurity, we are tired of being stressed out, and we are tired of the uncertainty every day. However, casting judgment on those that have more than us will not make anything physically better. 

Since quarantine began, I’ve been on Twitter a lot more and have seen tweet after tweet condemning billionaires for not doing enough in this time of crisis. It looks like we all have gathered together and come to the conclusion that the rich have the obligation to give away the money they’ve worked hard for to serve other people. As a Christian, I believe that God does indeed bless us so we can be a blessing to others, so I don’t disagree with this way of thought. My problem lies in the hypocrisy that engulfs this entire stance. We, who consider ourselves less fortunate, cast judgment on people with more money because they aren’t sharing what they have, but how can I do that when there have been countless times I ignored the homeless guy asking for spare change on the sidewalk? CENTS!  How can I cast judgment when I stalk my friends to make sure they give me back the $10 I lent them as a favor? You know what I’m talking about – when we send those Venmo requests because we refuse to be fooled. Why do we feel so comfortable obligating others to do favors for humanity that we don’t even do on our level?

I think it’s very easy to throw responsibility on others. We all swear that if we had their money we would give half of it all away. Well, the way we are judging the billionaires, I wonder if there is a kid growing up in a rough part of South America, living on one dollar a day having the same thoughts toward us. He might think, “This person makes $2,000.00 a month!? They should give half of their wealth to me!” But we don’t. We don’t do that because we don’t want to. Not only that, but it’s not that simple. 

Nine times out of 10, people that make $40,000 a year live a $40,000-a-year lifestyle. To give up your money means more than just giving away money you’ve “hoarded”. It means getting rid of the lifestyle that has made you comfortable. Not only that, I see so many tweets comparing billionaire’s net worth to their donations. This is very misleading. One’s net worth does not equate to the money they actually have in the bank! I’ll say it one more time for the people in the back. One’s net worth does not equate to the money they actually have in the bank! Many of the billionaires you hate can secretly have more debt than you – 100x your student loans.

I believe all this hate is rooted in 3 things: jealousy, greed and everyone wanting to play the blame game. We mask our jealousy of people that have more than us by saying, they should do this or they should do that. We want people to give away their money so we can have more in our pockets, that’s greed. We are all frustrated, and when we get frustrated we want nothing more than to find someone to put the blame on. Why not the billionaires who we believe have glamorous lives that are unaffected by all this? We need to cut it out.

Look. I get it. There are billionaires that are some evil you-know-whats. Also, in my personal opinion, I think many of them could be doing more at this time. However, I refuse to do the following:

1. I refuse to generalize a group of people based on their net worth or how much they have in the bank. Being rich does not mean you are evil. There could be some correlation there but there is no causation.
2. I refuse to place expectations on people I haven’t placed on myself. I can’t tell a billionaire to give half their worth when I’m not doing the same for the kid somewhere, living on a dollar a day. Many of us want to talk about billionaires’ greed, but we are the ones hoarding toilet paper.
3. I refuse to be jealous of anyone. I have everything I need to be 100% fulfilled by the time I die because I have Christ. God is able to make me sufficient in all things, and make me abound to every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8)
4. I refuse to allow my frustration to make me hate any individual or judge their sin. Sure, I can call out things I feel are wack, but I will not judge, nor allow my heart to carry hate if people aren’t doing what I want them to do.
5. I refuse to act like I know everything about the lives of people I never met. Many of these rich folks’ lives extend past their net worth. Like you and me, they have issues.

This may have been something a lot of people didn’t want to hear, but I think that’s okay. It needed to be said. Let’s make sure that we rely on God during this time, and not the righteousness of rich folk. God will see us through.