We have a wealth problem at Middlebury. The students here are among the wealthiest people in the U.S., and we don’t talk about it nearly enough. Our inability to broach this uncomfortable topic with peers and family hinders us from being authentic people and changemakers. There is a massive amount of money present at the college between the students and their parents, and it’s time we mobilize it. This could include attending the workshop with Resource Generation — an organization that helps wealthy young people redistribute money — on Oct. 1 in Axinn 229 from 5:30–8 p.m.
I want you to think about what it would look like for you to give up your wealth.
I had heard that the Middlebury student body was wealthy, but I didn’t know what wealth could look like until I came here. I grew up in a part of Vermont where rich meant middle class. I thought rich meant skiing, a two-car household, cable TV and name-brand snacks. When I got to Middlebury, it seemed like everyone had those things and more. As I got to know my first year peers, I found it was normal to go on international vacations and ski trips, or to have a personal car and an expensive bike and computer. Private schools and IB and AP educations were nothing unusual. I met my first friend with a second home and my first friend that didn’t apply for financial aid.
I found myself alone in this experience. It seemed nobody around me — not my friends, not my professors and not my classmates — was talking about what felt like, to me, to be the only thing to talk about.
Noticing the wealth of other first years at Middlebury’s brought up new feelings about my own struggles. It became harder to understand why my family, like so many, went through what we did. Why were we stuck shopping at the food bank when resources like these exist in such supposedly well-meaning and liberal hands? To watch people who I knew were rich sit beside me in class and speak about inequality and radical change while actively benefiting off of this wealth hoarding fell flat. If my classmates believed so truly in social justice, why weren’t they looking towards their own family wealth as a solution? By wealthy hoarding, I mean the system by which individuals set a goal of ever-increasing already large amounts of money through investments etc. Why didn’t they feel like they had material wealth to give? Many of us are unprepared for these conversations and the burden of these questions falls time and time again on working class students.
So let's talk about it.
Dismantling this system of wealth hoarding starts with discussing class privilege more frequently and more directly. I want to be talking about it in classes, in discussions, at dinner, at practice and on vacation. I wonder how much most wealthy students understand their socioeconomic class and its implications. Questions they could be asking including: How do I compare to others? What privileges have I been afforded that others haven’t? Do I have a trust fund? What is that? Am I middle class?
These conversations are not just self-exploration activities. We as a community need to get honest about how our socioeconomic class affects our role in the world. Many Middlebury students seem to have moved from one wealthy space into another. In addition to obscuring how uniquely wealthy their lives are, I think this affects people's ability to understand the wealth-hoarding path that they continue to choose. Having wealth is not an apolitical act; we choose it through our careers, our savings and investment choices, our purchases and our complacency with inherited privilege and capital. I wonder if they just don't know how much choice and money and power they have.
If you’re reading this and you want to start using that big old money pot, I have some action steps for you.
Ask your parents how much money they have — in investments, savings, homes, inheritance, trusts and cars, for example. What is their gross annual income? It’s time you figure out how much money you are a beneficiary of.
Does this number align with your values? What about the source, or what it’s spent on? Are you ready to work with your parents to redistribute it? I'm not talking about traditional philanthropy; that relies on continued class inequity. I’m talking about doing what you can to help dismantle class inequality while you have unique access to funds. Wealth redistribution is a pivotal role for wealthy social justice advocates.
Fortunately, we don’t have to figure this out all by ourselves! Organizations like Resource Generation exist to help wealthy young people understand their class privilege and redistribute their wealth back into the community. There is a movement of people who are fighting against the “wealth defense industry” and who have used their wealth to support their communities. I know these processes are complex, difficult, multi-party and multi-year affairs that cross cultural taboos and navigate family dynamics. No conversation or process will look the same. It is not an easy or straightforward process, but I hope that the people who feel like this is a possible step to take will take it.
