The other day I found myself watching Disney's Gravity Falls. It's a cooky show with absolutely nothing strange about it. Ok, who am I kidding, it's entire premise it built on the weird and paranormal.
Anyway, in one particular episode, one of the main characters is asked by the ultra wealthy family up a hill to help them get rid of a ghost problem before their annual super fancy party. He agrees on the premise that his sister and friends can attend the party, something the common folk of the town aren't allowed to do.
In the end, he is successful in capturing the angry spirit of a lumberjack, who explains WHY he is haunting the house. The family, 150 years prior, asked the common folk of the town to build them a grand mansion atop the hill. They were promised it would be a service to the town, and that there would be a yearly party in which wealthy and common folk alike would be invited. So they got to work, months of backbreaking work and men dying from work related injuries and accidents. Eventually, the mansion was finished. When the party came, the family laughed at the common folk and closed the gates on them. That night, as one lumberjack slammed his fists on gates he'd erected himself, a powerful storm rolled in. With no trees holding the ground like there were, a mudslide started to carry him away. As the wealthy partied, he was being buried in liquid mud, and an axe lodged in a log came free and struck him in the forehead (off-screen, of course, this is a kid's show). With his dying breath, the lumberjack cursed the mansion.
“And so I say with final breath
150 years, I'll return from death.
And if the gates still closed to town
Wealthy blood will stain the ground!”
Upon hearing this, the main character becomes furious and confronts the family, the father of which pretty much says “I'm the wealthiest person in town and am hosting some of the richest and most powerful people at this party. Do you honestly think they'd come if they'd have to brush shoulders with YOUR KIND?”
In the end the main character and the daughter of the family end up breaking the curse properly, by opening the gates to the town below. The ghost passes on peacefully, and the main character and the daughter having a bit of fun with rubbing their mud covered shoes on a fancy rug.
The point I'm making here is that our problem with having to deal with the wealthy and powerful lying to us for their own benefit has even made its way into children's television. Sure, that show was 10 years ago, but it was there. They presented a problem caused by wealthy people reneging on a promise and how it was later solved. I'm not saying that being invited to fancy parties is going to solve our problems, I just wanted to tell of this instance where a kid's show took a stab at the problem. If you want to watch this episode, you can find it in Gravity Falls, Season 2 Episode 10.