Howard Farran :
Professor Jiang asserts that the true point of money isn’t simply to hand you wealth. Instead, money’s real function is to create the illusion of value. That illusion compels people to exert effort to obtain it, even though that effort is often driven by a socially constructed notion of worth, not intrinsic value. In simpler terms: money isn’t valuable in itself but the belief that it is makes us act as if it were.
He also sharply critiques how poverty operates not as an unfortunate accident, but as an engineered condition imposed by those in power. As he’s quoted: “Poverty isn’t something you do to yourself, it is what the powerful do to you.”
In combination, Jiang’s ideas flip the conventional narrative: money’s power is rooted not in its real value—but its perceived value, which is shaped and enforced by power structures that keep poverty alive to sustain control.
As an allegory, think of money like stage props, meaningless on their own, but the belief that they matter turns the performance into something compelling. When that illusion fades, the performance collapses. So, poverty and power aren’t natural states, they’re roles assigned by those who benefit from the illusion.
2025-09-04 00:46:47