People with resources can really influence, if not shape, the experiences of many other people.
It’s actually a rather wonderful thing, especially when that influence is good. Obviously, you don't have to look very far to see that it can go the other way, too.
For example, how many of us have collective appreciation for things, for certain things, because of the beneficiary nature of shared experiences as a child? These could be community events, or many other things, which we remember with a degree of fondness from our childhood and perpetuate (or seek to) as adults. I remember a Christmas parade I would attend in a neighboring town as a child with my parents each December. In the little town I live in now, someone with resources funds an elaborate display of Christmas lighting. It's actually a bit cheeky, but I tend to overlook that feature; likely because of what it taps into...like my community-based childhood family rituals and the nostalgia it represents of a more innocent time.
While this often happens at localized levels, we can also see this effect at broader scales. National parks in the United States, for example, are a great example of a vision of preservation of collective resources that are good and beneficial for society. Obviously, we don’t always get this quite right (especially when scale is involved), and so there are failures (and abuses) as well. But, if we can somehow retain the embedded values of true shared goodness, we can recognize the power of how resources can be used to impact society at large, as well as individuals who participate in it.
In the end, resources of any kind (economic, natural, etc.) are the only thing we actually have. So, how we use them is both important and telling. If we're honest, so much of our personal good is impacted by a collective good, which in turn goes back the other way, too. After all, each of us has resources to contribute for the betterment of others...and together, it all adds up.
