Money and change

Mantsio’s 7 realities are all true. Reality 5 states “class standing has a significant impact on chances for educational achievement” (188). This I believe had the most impact on my college choice. I think a lot of things kids applying into college consider are my grades good enough then can I afford to pay? I know a lot of my friends who took a year off to work so they could have enough money to pay for college, or some of my friends went and took night classes at a community college so they could cheaply complete any prerequisites at a community college before continuing to another college. I am sure some of us know of friends who dropped out of high school due to family monetary problems. Money truly influences class mobility. These friends of mine all suffer under the class system, the system driven by money. Money which influences class can either benefit you depending on weather you suffer from any racial or sexual oppression.
Mantsio’s article made me think of how we could use the tools of our oppression, money, to benefit us. While money can hinder a person money can also benefit a person. What I interpreted from Mantsio’s is that money can manipulate things. I always thought that money can buy you votes in congress. When you look up people who have held the position of the secretary of treasury, or some regulating department of the government, most of those people had some high ranking position in other private companies. I think it is no stretch of the imagination to believe that some companies benefit from having former high ranking corporate figures in high ranking government jobs. Most people are also aware of the lobbyists that are paid and sent to sway the minds of congress to pass bills to benefit the companies they represent or to stop bills that would harm the industry they represent. Money seems to serve as a direct link between congress and the private sector, so I always wondered does that mean any rich man could influence congress. If so could a rich man influence the right number of congress men to say pass a bill on gay rights. Or conversely should the American people write letters to, let’s say Bill Gates, to buy a gay rights bill and send lobbyist to champion gay rights. If large companies send lobbyists to benefit their enterprise couldn’t we send lobbyists and money to benefit equality? If money truly has this power over congress, could we buy our way out of the oppression of racism and sexism?
Douglas Domingo