Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Nicholas Fitz — Economic Inequality: It’s Far Worse Than You Think

In a candid conversation with Frank Rich last fall, Chris Rock said, "Oh, people don’t even know. If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets." The findings of three studies, published over the last several years in Perspectives on Psychological Science, suggest that Rock is right. We have no idea how unequal our society has become.....
Scientific American
Economic Inequality: It’s Far Worse Than You Think
Nicholas Fitz, graduate student at the National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia
h/t Mark Thoma at Economist's View

9 comments:

Ignacio said...

But, but, it's the free market!

Ignacio said...

Turns otu the majority of humanity wants to live in socialism/communism (in USoA of all places! too!) but we end always falling into this ridiculous distributions of wealth and power.

What keeps failing all the time? It certainly hasn't been like that in tribes when there was not as much (if any) surplus. We are simply not made to live in communities of billions like ants, going beyond a tribe of 50 is hard to keep a non-sensical just society for us humans (and probably any mammal).

Tom Hickey said...

Previously, the powerful forced the rest into submission. Now it's just subtler.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

People have conflicting desires. They want:

1. Everybody to be more or less equal
2. Everybody to be free and have no burdensome obligations
3. A level of prosperity that goes way beyond the level of small scale tribal life.

The problem is that these things don't fit together. To have both prosperity and equality, you need organization and structured obligations. If you have prosperity and untrammeled economic freedom, you get great inequality. If you have equality and few obligations, you get relative poverty.

Peter Pan said...

People want food in their belly and a roof over their head. Is that too much to ask?

Idealists and their concerns represent a minority worldview.

Anonymous said...

Why think that a human being is something defined by a society, and is rich because of what the society may bestow and poor because of what the society may withhold? Humans create and destroy whole empires in a blink of the earth's eye – we do not value them. We want something more.

But it's a matter of focus. Humans focus on the distractions, the empire building and the 'gifts' the society may bestow, instead of the something more. Look at where your focus is each day, and during your life ….. then look at your heart; that is where you will find the thirst for something more. No-one has ever been able to assuage that thirst, with society or empire, relationships, worldly knowledge, a good job or a faithful cat! Not even writing cryptic comments on MNE helps!

Evolution doesn't care about empire. Evolution cares about evolving the human being – the human being is a vessel, for a driving thirst for something more; it is our engine. Imho, if you want kindness, justice and equity amongst people, that is where the focus should be. A 'good' King builds a good kingdom where the people rejoice!

"If the desire for contentment arises from within, then the best place to look for it is within". I think that is pretty straight-forward …..!

Peter Pan said...

Inequality is less of a problem for people who look within. They do not covet what others have.

Anonymous said...

“The most magnificent achievement of mankind will be peace on earth”. [Prem Rawat]

There are powers in a human being: to be able to laugh, to cry, to think, to Feel (we are feeling machines), to desire, to love, to FOCUS. Attention requires energy and usually our attention flits like a butterfly from one thing to another, all day long, all life long, dissipating this energy or power. If ever there were a human being arrive on this earth that knew how to gather up 100% of that energy and focus 100% of the time - that would be extraordinary. And if that person knew how to turn their attention within and focus it on the Infinite, that would be clarity. Then we would understand who we are. We are a social being on the outside, a spark of the universal Energy within. Human beings abrogate their powers and chase concepts instead. If we want to evolve, we need to focus.