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Summary of “Why They Created Poverty to Control You” by Prof. Jiang Xueqin

Prof. Jiang Xueqin’s essay is a sweeping philosophical critique of the invisible architecture that shapes modern life. Drawing on Immanuel Kant’s distinction between noumena (things-in-themselves) and phenomena (how things appear), the piece argues that what we take as “reality” is not an objective given but a carefully engineered set of constructs designed to maintain power hierarchies.

Four inter-locking constructs—money, the individual, the nation-state, and monotheism—are presented as the primary levers of control. Understanding their artificial nature, the author insists, is the prerequisite for genuine freedom.

1. Money as a Deliberate Scarcity Mechanism
   Money is not a scarce commodity; it is a social technology that banks create at will. The widespread belief in its scarcity is intentionally implanted to coerce people into perpetual labour. Poverty, therefore, is not a tragic by-product of limited resources but a functional necessity: it keeps wages low, workers compliant, and the extraction of surplus value smooth. Abundance of goods and capacity exists, yet an artificial distribution system withholds access, turning scarcity into a disciplinary tool. The moment citizens stop believing money is naturally scarce, the moral justification for overwork and inequality collapses.
2. The Individual as Isolation Technology
   The modern “individual” is a recent historical invention. Pre-modern identities were collective (clan, guild, village); the Enlightenment reframed persons as self-reliant, rights-bearing units whose highest duty is personal happiness. This shift was not emancipatory but strategic: isolated individuals cannot easily unionise, bargain collectively, or mount revolutions. By privatising ambition and responsibilising failure, power holders fragment resistance. The cult of individualism thus transforms solidarity into self-blame, making systemic exploitation appear as personal inadequacy.
3. The Nation-State as Mandatory Imaginary
   National identity is not organic; it is implanted through compulsory schooling. State-controlled curricula, rituals, and examinations manufacture loyalty to an abstract community, turning children into tax-paying, law-abiding citizens who will reproduce the state apparatus. Geography, language, and history are selectively curated to naturalise borders that are, in truth, arbitrary. Once the nation is accepted as “common sense,” critique of the state can be dismissed as treason, and conscription, taxation, and surveillance become ethical obligations rather than coercion.
4. Monotheism as the Cultural Operating System
   All three constructs—money, individualism, nationalism—trace their genealogy to monotheism. By positing a single, universal authority, monotheism normalised the idea of one correct standard (one God, one truth, one currency, one law). This cognitive template enables what the author calls “social alchemy”: the power to turn pure abstractions into material force once enough people believe in them. The leap from “In God We Trust” to “In the Dollar We Trust” is therefore not metaphorical but structural; both require faith in an invisible guarantor of order.
5. Epistemic Liberation as the Exit Ramp
   Because these realities are phenomenal—i.e., shaped by consciousness—they can be unshaped. The essay closes with an appeal to critical thinking and collective questioning. Eudaimonia (human flourishing) becomes possible only when citizens recognise the contingency of the constructs that govern them. This is not merely intellectual exercise; it is a practical act of refusing to participate in one’s own subjugation. The author rejects both naive reformism and cynical fatalism, arguing that consciousness-creation is a battlefield: whoever controls the story of what is “real” controls the distribution of life chances.

Significant Take-Away Points

• Poverty is intentionally engineered, not the result of resource limits.
• The belief in money-scarcity is the hidden curriculum that keeps wages low and workers obedient.
• Individualism undermines collective action and is therefore a tool of control, not liberation.
• National identity is implanted through compulsory education to ensure state reproduction.
• Monotheism provided the cultural logic for single standards, enabling modern economic and political centralisation.
• Because these structures are idea-based, exposing their contingency is the first step toward dismantling them.