The other day we watched a sci-fi thriller called 'In Time' One of the main themes in the film is currency. The time on everyone’s forearms is used to pay for day to day things to keep them alive such as food. In the slums people got by in their day to day life with just hours and minutes on their clocks. The people with the least amount of time on their clocks lived in the most poverty and would most commonly die of one of two causes: “timing out” (which is running out of time completely) or being killed by another human by having their time taken.
This is reflected in the real world; people who have the least amount of money generally live in very poor conditions and have very little money to keep them afloat in everyday life. Generally people who have the least amount of money have a poorer quality of life as they can’t afford to live- by this I mean buy food, clothe themselves and have a roof over their heads.
On the other end of the scale in the film are the rich; they don't need to constantly watch their clocks, as they have years and centuries on them, so currency is not an issue for them: anything they want they can pretty much have. The rich seem to live a lot more comfortably than the poor, and due to them living in an entirely different time zone to the poor, they don't need to worry about people trying to steal their time.
This is reflected in a real life situation, as the people who are very wealthy such as members of the government (and also entrepreneurs) who live life comfortably and can afford whatever they want. Their money effectively gives them power and control over people who are beneath them.
An example of this that directly affects people who are around my age are the cuts to education. The government are planning cuts on maintenance money for working class students, which could mean many students will have to say goodbye to their dream university, which is extremely unfair, as the students who are in university now, or who are going in the next few years, are the future of this country.
A further example of how the government are putting their power over the public are the benefit caps and cuts, which are going to affect around 100,000 families who are unemployed or who have very low income. These 100,000 families are being threatened with homelessness and poverty, These affected families will be receiving between £385 and £442 (for London) a week. Meanwhile the MP's have recently received a go ahead for a pay rise of 10%, which means they'll be earning £74,000.
However it's not just the low income/ unemployed families who have experienced the cuts. The public sector pay rises have been restricted to 1% for the next four years, which is already on top of a five year long pay freeze. When you compare this to the 10% rise that the MP's are going to receive, you can see how large the divide is between the r'ich' and the 'poor'.
Near the end of the film, people can be seen escaping their poverty ridden time zone into the richer time zones. This has disrupted the order that the rich had in place and they have no idea how to deal with it, due to the amount of people coming through and how suddenly it happened.
Recently in the news we have seen a story very similar to this which is the refugee crisis. People from Syria are crossing boarders to European countries to escape from the war and get to safety. Some countries such as Germany are welcoming refugees and offering them a place to stay; however countries such as Hungary are not so accepting, and they've recently shut their boarders. Hungary was seen by the refugees as a sort of gate way to northern and western Europe. Hungary have began rejecting asylum applications and have also enforced new laws which allows them to arrest refugees who cross their boarder.
There are a few reasons why refugees are seeking refuge in European countries; one of these reasons is that it is easily accessible on foot. There was a disaster in which refugees tried to flee by a boat which ended up capsizing, and the appearance of the distressing photo of the little drowned boy, who changed the everyone's opinion on the refugee crisis over night.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33552499
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/20/lower-benefit-caps-exclude-poor-families-make-cities-unaffordable
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/15/working-class-students-maintenance-grant-cuts
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/16/refugees-enter-croatia-from-serbia-after-hungary-blocks-border
http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/jul/08/local-government-emergency-budget-2015-key-points
http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/jul/08/pay-cap-public-servants-budget-2015
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/5/9265501/refugee-crisis-europe-syria