The Indonesian government has apparently decided the easiest way to solve inequality is to rewrite the dictionary. Why actually redistribute wealth when you can just redefine it?
In its new social stratification scheme, anyone spending more than US$185 a month, the cost of a pair of sneakers, five weeks of gas for your car, or a month’s groceries for a family of four, is now “super rich.”
$185? That’s less than the savings you get from a Jet2 holiday for a family of four. But sure, call it affluence. The “middle class”? That’s anyone burning between $50 and $93 a month, a budget that barely covers rice, transport, and the occasional Indomie binge if you’re feeling reckless (actually you’ll probably be feeding yourself only Indomie with veg daily with this money, never mind meat or eggs).
This isn’t redefining class, it’s institutional gaslighting. By declaring $185 the new gold standard, the government pretends to level the playing field while quietly siphoning more out of the pockets of the people stuck on it.
By 2027, companies are required to shave off 2.5% of every employee’s salary, with another 0.5% tossed in from the employer, to fund Tapera, a mandatory housing contribution. Problem is, that “savings” won’t get most workers anywhere near a house, at best, it’s money for fixing a leaking kitchen.
Meanwhile, the truly wealthy, including legislators who just gifted themselves a pay raise to Rp100 million a month (about $6,170) not counting extra allowances that can easily double their take-home pay, simply vanish from the equation. No mention of their actual spending power, just a convenient sleight of hand that keeps the real elite invisible.
Ordinary workers, on the other hand, are pushed into a corner: pay the new levies, swallow the erosion of rights, and keep quiet because statistically, congratulations, you’re “middle class” now. And don’t expect much because that new status means you’re conveniently ineligible for most subsidies or assistance programs.
If this is what counts as progress, they can shove today’s corny as fuck celebrations right up their asses.
प्रियंका | Priyanka 
