Wealth is not a Virtue

Hey, remember when as a teenager you were suddenly hit with the crippling realization that you, contrary to what your 8 year old self thought, do not in fact know what you want to do as an adult? How come that 8 year old you knew exactly what you wanted to do, but your teenage self does not? is it the fact that you began to realize that firefighters & math teachers do not get paid well?

Honestly how come is it that every kid coming-of-age is forced to decide between earning a livable wage or doing what they love & might even be good at? And on that note, since when have universities, the supposed bastion of academia, become merely a pipeline for industries?
It seems that in the providence of capitalism, no individual nor institution is safe from monetization. Kids are nothing but future labour, and universities are nothing but skilled worker factories. Your worth is your productivity. And everything is merely fodder to the machinations of the capitalist machine.

In university, I remember anyone that did not opt for a degree that is highly likely to be lucrative, were mocked for it. Science & Engineering students making fun of Liberal Art majors is the quintessential background noise of any campus. This is what we have decided as a society. To forsake the silly humanities and devote ourselves purely to economically sensible paths. More and more, every path that does not result in more money in the pockets of megacorp CEOs is seen as the fool’s path. Even STEM in its own way is not safe from this creeping monetization of education. The incentives for STEM students & faculty continues to be constantly wrapped by the whims of corporations, till it has become essentially hiring grounds for companies.

Side note: as a student I found that I learned & practiced critical thinking more in Philosophy and History courses than I have in any Science or Math course. Aristotle’s Unmoved mover taught about the power of syllogistic demonstration, while investigating the fall of the Ottoman Empire taught me about the complex navigation required in attempting to alleviate the biased lenses of history. Other conclusions from each course is that infinity is really weird, and nation-state relations is an N-body problem.

Money has no intrinsic value. Instead its value is completely based on what you exchange it for. Obvious, I know. Yet somehow, we have glorified the pursuit of wealth, and prioritize working towards its attainment over almost everything else. If you go to school, you do it to find well-paying jobs, not pursue interests. If a job pays enough, we disregard any moral agency we have to justify the pay. This twisted glorification has infected every last vestibule of our society. In the dogged pursuit of wealth, we have perverted our priorities and shifted our morals. Wealth is success, and anything less is failure. The world is richer than ever, yet we deny our fellow brethren their basic needs unless they can pay. Our central systems optimize for the few over the many, and its survival hinges on the many clinging to the hope of becoming the chosen few. All is fair in the pursuit of wealth.

Patience is a virtue, kindness is a virtue, wisdom is a virtue, humility is a virtue, but wealth is not. Yet we strive for the latter above all else.
We are not virtuous, we are wealthy.