credit: In Time
The world is not an equal place in terms of wealth. Some people struggle to live their daily lives as they do not have enough money to feed themselves, while others can afford to shed some money to make life more comfortable. Indeed, money has become one of the things people live for; it is as if money makes them live.
Oh, wait, did I say money makes a person live? The 2011 movie In Time took that line for a new spin. In the movie, after reaching 25, the characters stop aging and will have a reserve of Time which they will use as a currency. This means Time is money, literally. So the rich can live forever, while the poor must work their lives to survive another day.
The movie had an interesting concept; that’s why we thought of analyzing what happened there below!
A movie about the wealth gap
The movie showed there was another way to show it, and that was: to their money, and if they ran out of money, they would die as well. This emphasized the wealth struggle more as the poor had an amplified need for “money,” which the wealthy would siphon.
The main character, Dayton, meets a rich person with over a century in his pocket. The rich person told him that he was essentially tired of his life, and he deliberately put himself in trouble so that he would run out of Time and end things off. This enraged Dayton because of this wasteful and ungrateful attitude. He had a lot of Time (and life) left, while others like Dayton would die for the wealth he had. The next day, while Dayton was sleeping, the rich person did the unthinkable by transferring Dayton most of his century-long Time left, leaving only enough time to himself to go to a bridge and sit, waiting for his time to tick out.
This scene made Dayton realize that the poor were kept poor by the rich by depriving them of Time, and he ought to change the system for the better by giving everyone time to afford everything.
credit: In Time
Someone who grew out of poverty might act weird out of it
The movie showed another aspect of poverty: getting out of it. After having the rich person’s Time now in his wrist, he was wealthy and experienced things only the rich could afford.
At first, he was running because he did not have much Time to slack off. However, he realized he was rich and “had all the time in the world.” So he just walked. He stayed in an expensive hotel and ate an expensive breakfast. This part of the movie went to show how comfort (like the act of just walking comfortably in the streets) was a luxury.
This can also be seen in real life. For example, the poor could sometimes not afford to stroll because they would lose the bus to work. Yes, they would not die if they did not get to work, but that would affect how much they could give their family to sustain them. This is not true for the rich as they have cars that could evade the hassle of work commute. The movie also showed how comfortable living spaces and decent food could be afforded by the rich (and, to some extent, by the middle class) but seldom by the poor.
credit: In Time
You can’t solve poverty by giving everyone money.
The main characters, Dayton and Sylvia, were obsessed with robbing time banks to give the poor people more Time. However, that was not the right approach, as more and more “rich” people were getting in; the rich people, in the beginning, began to raise prices so they would still stay on the top. So the rich people would indeed keep on making the poor poor.
An economic aspect revolves around this, which could also explain why giving away money would not work. If everyone has a lot of money, everyone can afford everything, which would cause in higher demand for goods (and services). Now, to keep the supplies enough, the sellers had to raise prices to decrease the number of those who could buy, causing inflation. This is also why a country can’t just print more money and distribute it to people.
Follow Us
