Inequality - AGAIN

Did you ever have one of those periods where everything seems to come together on one idea? I've been sitting here in the North Woods of Wisc., reading and perusing the Internet. I've come across some very interesting things about inequality in our society. You might also find them of interest. These are TED talks, but I have found that the YouTube version is a bit more consistent - and the commercials less annoying!

The Disparity Problem is BAD
This first talk, by a Canadian, Chrystia Freeland, explains how great the inequality is these days. The top 1% have bunches of stuff, mostly, it seems, at the expense of the bottom 10 to 20% and the rest of us in the middle class.  We are growing wealth and productivity - but that wealth is NOT being spread about. It is captured by the very top. She makes the point very well.

   http://youtu.be/d6NKdnZvdoo

She also talks about the risk of instability in our society if this is not addressed.

But We Can Fix it

She closes with some words about what we might do to correct this problem. Taxation, investment, etc. But the key thing she is looking for is a major social innovation.  We solved these problems once - after the industrial revolution - although it took us 100 years and the pits of the Great Depression. We need to do it again! Hopefully we will get to it before the wheels totally come off this time.

 

Disparity Correlates Negatively to Health and Wellbeing in the Society

The other talk is even more interesting. This fellow, Richard Wilkenson, uses data - statistics - to show that societies with large income disparities have worse health, higher murder rates, etc., Income inequality is divisive and corrosive. It threatens the stability of the society.

 http://youtu.be/cZ7LzE3u7Bw

Some surprises in there.

The speaker starts with the surprising fact that income inequality ACROSS nations by GNP does not correlate with any human health factors. But within a nation, income inequality correlates very closely with every measure of human health and social well being.  Even more surprising, it does not seem to matter HOW a society gets to a lower income disparity. Norway does it through taxation, and Japan in a totally different fashion. Both have the benefits of a healthier society in all categories. The speaker cites 200 different studies.

At the end of this talk, he makes the point that I have been wont to repeat - we are all in this together. In a society with great income disparity, the folks at the very top, the very richest, suffer as well. They are less healthy than the comparable level in a society with a lower level of disparity.

He makes a conjecture as to the causation - the stress of the society, the class structure, the lack of respect drives the health and behavior. I think he is on to something there. The frustration of the American Dream denied is a big problem in our world. We are healthier and better off where that disparity is not so obvious.

I know it's a lot of stuff. Let me know what you think.