How economic inequality harms societies

[dearmisterecho]

from TED.com

Best quote: "If Americans want the American dream, they should move to Denmark."

With the Occupy Movement going on I felt this really got to the heart of what all the protests are about.

Plus I love me a good TED talk.

Comments

[arisma]

Oh man, TED talk. *shifts cleaning of closet to tomorrow*

[dawn9476]

It's funny and sad that the party that beats their chest about American exceptionalism are the ones who don't care that we have the worse income inequality of any developed nation.

[celtic_thistle]

When you point it out, the cognitive dissonance generated is enough to power a star for a few millenia. It's mind-blowing. There's usually something about socialism and taxes and godlessness and freedom and whargbl

[roseofjuly]

Because they don't care about income inequality if they are the ones at the top - or aspire to be at the top and believe they can get there with a little elbow grease. In fact, a few savvy ones may realize that income inequality is practically required for them to maintain or gain wealthy lifestyles.

[papilio_luna]

This is a good post and you should feel good. My Canadian colleague just came barreling in here to rant for a while about student loans (he doesn't have one, but he's a sympathetic person) and income disparity and I was like WAIT LEMME JUST EMAIL YOU THIS TED TALK RIGHT HERE.

[the_glow_worm]

Despite the fact that inequality is bad for the rich as well as the poor, I doubt any of the rich will care. I sincerely think that it's not the wealth they enjoy, it's the extreme disparity of wealth that they hold.

[wemblee]

I sincerely think that it's not the wealth they enjoy, it's the extreme disparity of wealth that they hold.

Yep. Wasn't there a post here about some experiment about economics and class and inequality that used school children? Where it distributed some resource to them, and the kids were happier when they knew someone was a rung below them even if they weren't on the top rung? Human nature is fuuuuucked uuuuup.

[dearmisterecho]

did they only use American school children? I would imagine if they did, it's not so much human nature as kids being raised in a society with that mindset :(

[wemblee]

I don't remember... I think I saw the article here in _p. I hope you're right, just because if it's cultural rather than a human nature thing, you can actually change it.

[tiger0range]

It's not just the stress of staying rich (and maintaining social status) going up for the rich that causes this. People don't realize that basic technological advances, infrastructure, services, etc. requires a BROAD consumer base, not just money.

In other words: A 10 billion dollars paid to a particular service (like say medical care) from 100k people would make the effectiveness of that service (in say curing a disease) a whole lot higher than 10 billion dollars paid to that same service from 1k people.

Same amount of money, to the same service, but a whole lot less affective. This goes for automobiles, air travel, entertainment, electronic goods, even the quality of artisanal luxury goods (something you would think would be unaffected).

[tiger0range]

Of course, there is an opposite end of the spectrum where the consumer base is too broad. My "not just money" doesn't mean money doesn't matter, just that it isn't the only thing that matters.

In any event, we haven't ever explored the other end of the spectrum historically (not in Soviet Russia especially).