Capitalism: Exploitation And How it Keeps Us Poor.

We already have a bad view of money, in this part of the world, the more money you make, the more "respect" you have. You can literally buy everything with money here, and you can escape crimes with money too.

We don't question people's sources of wealth, and we rarely ever dig in, we view money as a god and whoever has money is seen as greater than god.

We see rich people as people who worked all had to get to where they are, we love the grass to grace story and they know how to sell it to us all the time.

If you ask questions about their wealth, the mob attacks and call you many names, especially if the said wealthy person is a "philanthropist".

We also need to understand that a person or people can have legitimate businesses but get wealthy through the exploitation of their workers. This is mostly how so many people make their excess wealth .

When you ask excessively wealthy people how they are so wealthy, they don't tell you all the "cut corners", cut taxes, and underpayment they do, they only tell you that they worked hard and worked smart.

That's one big lie.

If it took smart work and hardwork, there'll be more rich people than poor people in the world, in fact, nobody would be poor if it took "work" to be a billionaire. But it doesn't take work, it takes exploitation to be extremely wealthy.

Oil Money.

For every oil money the oil geng makes in this country, people are dying for it. Why did they kill Ken Saro Wiwa? Why is Port Harcourt covered with black soot that killed and will still kill people? How about the Villages in the Niger Delta that can't fish and farm because their land and water have been destroyed by oil? But they tell you it's hardwork and smart work than made the billionaires.

The oil money billionaires, they only have that much money because they refuse to share and redistribute that oil money evenly to everyone who should be paid and compensated for the natural resources that belongs to everyone.

Slave Trade, Colonization and Neocolonialism.

Should we talk about how the other parts of the world have a tight grip on Africa?
Even our own government are tools in their own hands, Erm, Why did they bomb Libya and killed Gaddafi?

Why did they kill main African activists that were fighting against neocolonialism.

How about the slave trade? Did they tell you how African slaves built the economies of the Americans and Europeans?

Did they tell you how they get the colbat used in manufacturing automobiles and electronics, phones and other things?

Congo alone has about half of the world's cobalt, and you know who mines them? Children and of course poor people Children who should be in school.

How about the The Emerald mine in Zambia? The oil and gold in Nigeria?

Why did they hold the Berlin Conference in 1885? Why is Africa struggling until this day?

The thing about people, governments and nations that make money off natural resources is that they take natural resources that belongs to all of us and make it theirs alone, at our own expense.

And you tell me that's hard work and smart work making them that rich?

Organizations.

How much do companies make? How much do they pay their staff?

It's called the working class for a reason. We work and toil all day. Work 5 days a week, wake up by 6 or even 3am if you live in Lagos, get home by 9.

You spend over 12hrs of your day working for a company, what do they pay you at the end of the month? Peanuts.

Your work is why that company stands. People's work, because what is a company without human labour and power?

They exploit you, make massive profit out of your hardwork, sometimes they give you "incentives" to make you feel good about their exploitation of you.

Then your boss buys a private jet and you are excited, your boss is one of the richest people in the country, going about giving Ted talks on how they started from grass and gutters. They don't tell you that they amass so much wealth for themselves by paying you short of what you are worth.

You survive day to day. Hand to mouth, you cut cost all you can, yet you barely survive. The country is hard we know, because everyone is exploiting the next person they are richer than.

You my dear, they tell you it's all hard work and investment and smart work, you Read Robert Kiyosaki's books which do not cater to poor people at all. The whole financial literacy thing, they're for the wealthy and "middle class", not for poor people. Because how can you save money when you don't even have food to eat?
How can you save when you don't even have money to buy your medications?
How can you save money when you have to work and run a side hustle to be able to pay bills?

We don't even talk about how people shouldn't be having a side hustle just so they can survive.

That's how much mess the wealthy class put poor people in. They exploit us, pay us less, then to be able to stay alive so pay the bills which also goes to them we have to have a side hustle.

There's everything wrong with that. Everything. Your work should be enough to settle your bills and financial problems, you shouldn't be working and having a side hustle if you were not being exploited.

Schools.

How much are school teachers paid in this country? How much does the school make?
Have you thought about it? Then imagine that schools can employ thousands of people and pay them peanuts, wouldn't the school owner be worth billions?

Teachers do the main work in schools, but the school owner who collects N300,000 Naira tution fee per child is paying a teacher who teaches a class of 20 kids N70,000. The teacher's salary is not even up to one quarter of a child's school fees.

Banks.

Should we talk about how the banks in this country exploit their employees? Lol, you wouldn't have the guts to call any bank owner your inspiration.

And, maybe if they paid their employees their worth, some of them who call themselves "philanthropists" will have no need to be that. Because the people they're giving money wouldn't be needing their money in the first place.

This is why I believe that philanthropy without activism to fix the problem from it's root so that people will stop needing help is just wealthy people giving the poor "briibe" and throwing their money around to massage their ego.

As at yesterday, the 2nd of march 2022, it was reported that over 75% of bank staff in Nigeria are contract staff. The bank pays them between 50,000 to 85,000Naira monthly. Less than they pay the normal bank staff.

They resume work earlier, close late and are not paid for overtime. They are given targets, can be dropped at anytime, and do not enjoy any workers benefits, this means that for women who are contract staff, they won't be paid during maternity leave.

Why do they hire more contract staff? Isn't that just so that they can escape paying workers their worth?

Isn't that a way they amass wealth for themselves?

Folks, people don't buy bank shares in Nigeria anymore because after over twenty years, you get nothing, no dividends, nothing at all. Yet the bank makes billions of naira in profit every year.

They exploit their staff. They don't pay shareholders, they cut corners all the way, and you want to tell me that a bank owner is your idea of inspiration ?

Billionaires are billionaires because they don't redistribute wealth, they hoard it, and they invent poverty, they make their staff poor, they steal natural resources and make it theirs alone, they make the masses poor because they depend on that poverty to keep making more billions.

PS: People can be rich, People can make good money from whatever they are good at, the problem is, In a country with so much toxic capitalism as ours, they make it so much harder for people to make enough money. Wondered how Nigeria became the world’s poverty capital? Here in this article, you have the answers.

©Chidera Ochuagu