>>130245374>Benders are more employable because of their powersThe opposite--their powers make them an economic liability (and safety hazard). Much like real world industrialization makes accomplished craftsmen redundant, industrialization made benders redundant. This is stated explicitly in Imbalance and iirc Amon even makes this point. Bending doesn't serve a significant economic purpose any more. Bending is just a weapon used now by (largely impoverished) benders. Economic elites are all non-benders using machines to make their fortunes.
>A no bender can't walk off the street and sell their body as a living battery.If this is a reference to Mako's brief stint in a power plant, benders largely cannot "walk off the street" either. Lightning bending is a niche specialization that years and lots of special training to master. Mako was able to learn it under the guidance of Zolt only after he suffered homelessness and impoverishment. Most benders will never learn it at all, or even have a chance to learn it. And that job is explicitly said to be so draining and gruelling even if you do master lightning bending you won't last long.
>when a bender suffers under the economic hardship of the city they can turn to gangs because they have built in weapons.And they're going to be disproportionately forced to join said gangs to survive (and all the violence that entails), because they are economically disadvantaged when compared to nonbenders. Those built in weapons take as much training as any sword or boomerang to use and master too, btw. The police form one more gang, a state-sponsored one.
>And by the time of Amon, every member of the ruling unelected council of foreign powers that ran the government was a bender.Sure, but that was explicitly stated to be a coincidence which served to boost anti-bender sentiment. It doesn't make Benders economically privileged an ymore than Obama's presidency meant Black people were privileged in 2008-2016 USA
