LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 26:5 May 2026
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Selvi M. Bunce, M.A., Ed.D.
         Nathan Mulder Bunce, M.A., Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Honorary Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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The Wealth Gap: Who Gets to Survive? Well-Being, Economic Inequality, and the Commodification of Hope

Sidharthani D. and
Dr. Sreejana S.

Abstract

This paper examines the structural relationship between economic inequality and well-being, arguing that hope — broadly understood as the psychological capacity to anticipate a better future — functions not as a universal human endowment, but as a resource unevenly distributed along class lines. Drawing on empirical research in health economics, positive psychology, and social policy, this analysis contrasts the well-being losses experienced across income strata and demonstrates that the poor are not merely materially deprived, but are systematically excluded from the psychological infrastructure of aspiration. The findings suggest that addressing the wealth gap requires more than income redistribution; it demands the democratization of hope itself.

Keywords:Hope, income inequality, social psychology, politics of hope

Introduction

In most public discourse, hope is treated as a personal virtue — something one chooses to maintain regardless of circumstance. Popular culture celebrates stories of individuals who, despite crushing poverty, held fast to their dreams and eventually succeeded. These narratives are compelling precisely because they feel universal: hope, unlike money, seems freely available to all.

But this view cannot survive scrutiny. The sociological and psychological evidence accumulated over the past three decades paints a fundamentally different picture: the capacity to hope — to genuinely believe that one's future will be better than one's present — is profoundly shaped by material circumstance. When survival itself is uncertain, when debt accumulates faster than wages, when a single medical bill can erase years of savings, the cognitive bandwidth required to imagine a different tomorrow is consumed entirely by managing today.

This paper does not argue that poor people cannot hope. Rather, it argues that they must pay a far greater cost to do so — and that this cost, invisible in most economic analyses, is among the cruelest dimensions of inequality. To be wealthy is to have the future as a resource. To be poor is to have the present as a burden. The gap between these two experiences is not merely financial. It is existential.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Sidharthani D.
First Year Aeronautical Engineering Student
Kumaraguru College of Technology
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
sidharthani.25ae@kct.ac.in
&
Dr. Sreejana S.
Assistant Professor and Head
Department of Languages and Communications
Kumaraguru College of Technology
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
sreejana.s.sci@kct.ac.in

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