The images we see day in, day out, in most media, fall into two main categories: flattering pictures of rich people, and ugly caricatures of the lower classes.

Our reporters, our anchor-people, our directors and producers, are either upper-class or aspiring to be. Nearly all of our politicians are rich; the few exceptions stand out. Top scientists, famous artists and entertainers: they’re all rich. Our celebrities get rich as soon as we hear about them, for whatever reason. These are the people we gossip about. These are the people we watch.

These are the people who’ve been deciding what we talk about, what we care about, what’s important. But what do they know about what’s really important in the lives of the rest of us? The ones who do know something about the lives of the non-rich generally try to forget. People are afraid of poverty like it’s a contagious disease. So mostly we get to see the world outside our personal spheres through the lens of people with money.

The best people in media tell our stories, the stories of ordinary lives. But we need to speak for ourselves, tell our own stories, stop being ashamed of not being rich. Poverty is not a character flaw. Many honorable, smart, and talented people have no money.

Usually, when we see poor people on mainstream media, they seem neither honorable nor smart. They jump and shriek like small children on game shows. They spout clichés and disrespect themselves and one another on “reality” shows. They snivel and smirk in crime re-enactments. If we believe the images we see, we think poor people deserve to be poor.

The Christian Bible, often used to justify unchristian behavior these days, still contains useful and powerful ideas. It says, for example, that ordinary people are the salt of the earth, and asks, if the salt should lose its savor, how the salt shall be salted. I take this to mean that if we stop appreciating the qualities of ordinary people, we will lose our taste for people altogether. Watching the curated fakes on television, the preening “winners” and ridiculous “losers,” can have that effect.

In real life, any quality that is beautiful, humane, and noble can be found in the hearts of poor people, if it is to be found anywhere. The quality of loving-kindness has been devalued in public life: to be kind is to be a fool, a sucker, to give more than you have to, when you could keep more for yourself and be counted wise. To be kind and caring is to value other people over financial wealth. People who base their lives around caring therefore pose a deep challenge to the status quo, and threaten the status of those who benefit from our current cruel and self-centered system.

Loving-kindness is the enemy of greed. People who live according to that standard tend to have little money. The true heroes of our society are the people who teach, who take care of, who heal, in their everyday lives. They rarely make the news. But let some greed-head give a tiny fraction of his wealth to an elite institution that will put his name on a building, and he gets fawning headlines and magazine puff pieces.

I remember when American values began to shift away from consumption and accumulation, and then were deliberately wrenched back. The revolution of the ‘60s turned many young people away from materialism toward a more spiritual existence. People were beginning to re-use and recycle instead of shopping for new stuff all the time; they were beginning to share instead of accumulate. Those whose lifestyle depends on the appetite of the American consumer felt threatened by this ethos of peace and love.

The Reagan administration responded by redefining greed as a positive quality. Rich people were encouraged to feel comfortable flaunting their wealth. Poor people got blamed for their failure to make money. Never mind that it was possible, and is still possible, to work two full-time jobs and still not be able to feed and shelter your family. If you had no money, you must be stupid or lazy. This idea was easy for high-income people to accept. It meant they could ignore poverty without guilt; it meant they could lobby for lower taxes without worrying about the public good.

Private greed, as it turns out, does not mean that wealth trickles down to the poor. It does not serve the public good. Greed only makes the rich richer, and the rest of us poorer. This is the place where America has been stuck for 40 years. Isn’t it time we took another look at our guiding principles?

This country can be about more than the freedom to make money, even if that were possible for most Americans. This country can be about the most varied assortment of people, from everywhere, of every belief system, living together with mutual respect – living together in peace.

Seeing value and beauty in non-rich people might be a good place to start.