Why inequality persists in America
newyorker.com
Why inequality persists in America
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Re: Why inequality persists in America
#2Sorry, I know I have some remedial reading to do on this subject -- I'm trying to fill in the gaps. One thing I never see in these articles is why the movement people are seeing in this indicator necessarily means that something bad is happening.
Suppose I rake leaves for a living and only barely make enough to feed myself. Suppose technology allows someone else to succeed in ways that have not previously been possible, and they become billionaires. Didn't the range between poorest (me) and richest (them) become wider? Suppose they succeed even more and become trillionaires. Didn't the range just get wider again? Why is this bad?
Re: Why inequality persists in America
#3Sorry, I know I have some remedial reading to do on this subject -- I'm trying to fill in the gaps. One thing I never see in these articles is why the movement people are seeing in this indicator necessarily means that something bad is happening. Suppose I rake leaves for a living and only barely make enough to feed myself. Suppose technology allows someone else to succeed in ways that have not previously been possib…
> Why is this bad?
Because they have more money that they can spend, while you an other human being is almost starving, and maybe can't access to education or healthcare.
It's not only a matter of billionnaires. We can wonder if it is fair that we (most of us are middle-class of developed countries) live a life of opulence when others are struggling. It strikes me whenever I travel in less developed countries.
Re: Why inequality persists in America
#4Sorry, I know I have some remedial reading to do on this subject -- I'm trying to fill in the gaps. One thing I never see in these articles is why the movement people are seeing in this indicator necessarily means that something bad is happening. Suppose I rake leaves for a living and only barely make enough to feed myself. Suppose technology allows someone else to succeed in ways that have not previously been possib…
My same exact thought process. I think the real issue is poverty. Globally, poverty still exists on a mass scale. That is the sad part, not the fact that .01% buy private planes and the bottom 50% in the US buys used Toyotas.
My other question with GDP / income stats that I never see answered is, why is lower income worse? While 50 years ago it seems maximizing personal income was the main career goal, that is definitely not true for a large % of the population today. People are looking for fulfillment, working for non profits, taking time off to travel and choosing lower income jobs that they enjoy more. It is represented as a negative thing that those people are making less money even if they end up happier.
Re: Why inequality persists in America
#5Sorry, I know I have some remedial reading to do on this subject -- I'm trying to fill in the gaps. One thing I never see in these articles is why the movement people are seeing in this indicator necessarily means that something bad is happening. Suppose I rake leaves for a living and only barely make enough to feed myself. Suppose technology allows someone else to succeed in ways that have not previously been possib…
Income inequity is generally a runaway process -- the rich get richer, so to speak. When you have resources and capital, making money isn't that difficult. The problem is that as the gap between classes widens, so do the cultural and societal differences.
The rich have SO much money that they can't even imagine what it's like to be poor. They see the disadvantaged as lazy and deserving of their state. The poor see the wealthy as out of touch at best, and arrogant assholes at worst. When the wealthy are so far removed from the poor, it's more difficult to affect change in governmental policies that benefit the lower class. Those in power and those with money pass laws that benefit the upper class or, more likely, simply don't benefit the poor enough. The cycle continues until a large portion of the country is quite poor, and a tiny fraction is incredibly rich.
Re: Why inequality persists in America
#6Sorry, I know I have some remedial reading to do on this subject -- I'm trying to fill in the gaps. One thing I never see in these articles is why the movement people are seeing in this indicator necessarily means that something bad is happening. Suppose I rake leaves for a living and only barely make enough to feed myself. Suppose technology allows someone else to succeed in ways that have not previously been possib…
> Why is this bad? Because they have more money that they can spend, while you an other human being is almost starving, and maybe can't access to education or healthcare. It's not only a matter of billionnaires. We can wonder if it is fair that we (most of us are middle-class of developed countries) live a life of opulence when others are struggling. It strikes me whenever I travel in less developed countries.
But is inequality the root issue or is poverty the root issue?
If everyone in the world could afford 1 yacht, but 1% each had 1,000 yachts, that is mass inequality. But would that bother you?
Re: Why inequality persists in America
#7"The less representative the upper body of a national legislature, the greater the gap between the rich and the poor."
Interestingly enough, one of the failed amendments to the Constitution was have each member of the House of Representatives represent a max of 50,000 citizens. [1] I've wondered whether this would be a good change to our modern system where some representatives have 1m+ constituents.
I mean, how can one person accurately represent the views of so many people?
What a larger house would mean is an increase in the number of political parties as small groups of people could work to have their minority groups represented outside of a major political party.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Apportionment_Am...
EDIT: Here's a site with some information about the idea of increasing the size of the house: http://www.thirty-thousand.org/
Re: Why inequality persists in America
#8Increasing inequality, and a decline of the wages of the middle class, are worldwide phenomena that are occurring in most first-world countries. The effects of trends are currently the most extreme in the United States, but I'd be willing to bet that the US just got here first, and others will follow.
I won't pretend that anyone really knows why this is happening (although a few causes seem fairly obvious), but it is clearly a worldwide phenomenon, and looking for causes only in the United States is a bit myopic.
Re: Why inequality persists in America
#9"The less representative the upper body of a national legislature, the greater the gap between the rich and the poor." Interestingly enough, one of the failed amendments to the Constitution was have each member of the House of Representatives represent a max of 50,000 citizens. [1] I've wondered whether this would be a good change to our modern system where some representatives have 1m+ constituents. I mean, how can…
If gerrymandering persists, the dysfunction of Congress will also persist, no matter how many members there are. Representatives have no incentives to behave responsibly under the current districting situation.
Re: Why inequality persists in America
#10I thought this was about the continent. What a pretentious title.