Knowledge has become a key commodity of the 21st century.  We are taught that in order to be something in this society you need knowledge, you need an education, a degree to your name.  Knowledge is power.  Those that have the most knowledge climb the ladder of power.  They are the ones running this society, telling us that in order to be successful we need knowledge.  In a society where knowledge is power, knowledge has also become wealth.  We are a society driven by consumerism and capitalism; we are ever longing for more materials to purchase and more money to purchase them with.  In a materialistic consumer driven society, knowledge has been materialized, it has been commodified, making it one of the most sought after commodities of the wealthy and those that can afford it.  Knowledge is now something that is being produced under capitalist labor market conditions: it can be bought and sold, and it is private rather than public property.  Knowledge is becoming less about what it actually is, and more about who can afford it.  The knowledge economy is about creating and processing knowledge, trading and using knowledge for competitive advantage- it is not about knowing or knowledge for its own sake, it is not about the pursuit of knowledge but about "creating" knowledge by turning knowledge into a commodity or product (On Tricky Ground, L.T. Smith, 2005). Knowledge is no longer about what it is meant to be about; it isn't about knowing for the sake of knowing, or about gaining more knowledge, it is now about gaining wealth.  Knowledge, something that I believe was never meant to be a material or a commodity, has now been made into a product, a commodity of a materialistic society, available to the wealthy and those that have power. This leaves those that can't afford in the margins, leaving them to the ascendancy of the wealthy, ever increasing the gap between the rich and the poor.