Far Right Economic Policy Menu is Poison

[mikkel_the_dane]

Why is income inequality a bad thing, per se?

It isn't. It is subjective.

 

[Suave]

I just cant wait to see the far left version.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren have an interesting proposal in order to enhance federal government revenue by way of imposing a three percent rate of taxation on the wealth of billionaires, this would enhance our federal government's revenue by at least $3 trillion over the course of the next decade.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/01/eli...pose-3percent-wealth-tax-on-billionaires.html

In order to help our nation fund Medicare-for-all, become carbon neutral, rebuild our infrastructure with clean energy highways, and provide tuition free higher learning for students, thus reducing wealth inequality, perhaps we can agree it would not be asking billionaires too much for each of them to pay just three percent of their wealth each year in excess of one billion dollars.

 

[Suave]

Why is income inequality a bad thing, per se?

Why is Income Inequality Bad?

The U.S. has the highest level of income inequality among the G7 nations.

Please reference: 6 facts about economic inequality in the U.S.

People in more unequal societies live shorter lives. The United States is number 50 out of 222 in the world in terms of life expectancy.

Children in more unequal societies do worse in school. Out of 34 OECD countries, we are 14th in reading skills, 17th in science, and 25th in math.

More people are imprisoned in an unequal society. We have the highest incarceration rates in the world as well as the most people in prisons.

People in more unequal societies are more likely to experience mental illness. In 2003, 17-29% of Americans suffered with mental illness.

More children die in infancy in unequal societies. We are number 176 of all 222 countries.

Obesity is more common is unequal societies. Obesity rates in the United States are the highest of all OECD countries.

Teenage mothers are more common in unequal societies. Teenage pregnancy rates in the United States are the highest of all fully-industrialized nations.

It seems extreme income inequality is a pretty precarious position, and it has already made for some devastating results. It’s time to take a stand before it gets even worse.

Please reference: Why is Income Inequality Bad?

 

[metis]

Why is Income Inequality Bad?

The U.S. has the highest level of income inequality among the G7 nations.

Please reference: 6 facts about economic inequality in the U.S.

People in more unequal societies live shorter lives. The United States is number 50 out of 222 in the world in terms of life expectancy.

Children in more unequal societies do worse in school. Out of 34 OECD countries, we are 14th in reading skills, 17th in science, and 25th in math.

More people are imprisoned in an unequal society. We have the highest incarceration rates in the world as well as the most people in prisons.

People in more unequal societies are more likely to experience mental illness. In 2003, 17-29% of Americans suffered with mental illness.

More children die in infancy in unequal societies. We are number 176 of all 222 countries.

Obesity is more common is unequal societies. Obesity rates in the United States are the highest of all OECD countries.

Teenage mothers are more common in unequal societies. Teenage pregnancy rates in the United States are the highest of all fully-industrialized nations.

It seems extreme income inequality is a pretty precarious position, and it has already made for some devastating results. It’s time to take a stand before it gets even worse.

Please reference: Why is Income Inequality Bad?

As British Anthropologist Desmond Morris predicted back in the late 1960's, the U.S. could tear itself apart over income disparity because, as he said, we don't seemingly know when to stop competing against each other. Alan Greenspan echoed much the same in Congressional testimony back in 2009 dealing with the cause of the Great Recession.

When conditions change, societies typically must change-- just ask the dinosaurs. January 6th alone tells us that we have to start doing something different along this line or we may tear ourselves to shreds-- a house divided cannot stand in the long run.

 

[atanu]

This note is further to the OP. The following TED talk “The Psychology of inequality and political division” by Mr Keith Payne a social psychology professor at the University of North Carolina is a continuation. The speaker gives a scientific account of the reasons and the results of inequality.

The psychology of inequality and political division

Keith Payne recapitulates that the wealthiest one-tenth of one percent in the United States have as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent combined. Irrespective of the absolute incomes, the social problems such as shorter lifespans, less happiness, more crime and more drug abuse all correlate with economic inequality. In this regards, the US, the wealthiest and the most unequal of nations, actually fares worse than all other developed countries.

I have summarised the main points of the Keith’s talk below:

• As inequality has risen in recent decades, political polarization has risen along with it and we see those who disagree with us as idiots or as immoral. There are good psychological reasons that inequality drives wedges in our politics.
• Inequality is powerful disrupter of social harmony because of wjhat psychologists call "better-than-average effect." Most people think they're smarter than average, harder working than average and more socially skilled. But the reality is found to be otherwise and people cope with it by shifting how we see the world.
• In an experiment, everyone was made to earn the same amount of money. But one group was randomly that they had done better than average while the other group was told that they had done worse than average. The better-than-average group said that they were more competent than the below-average group and that their success was a fair outcome of a meritocracy. The below-average group thought the system was rigged. The better-than-average group said anybody who disagrees with them must be incompetent, biased, blinded by self-interest. The below-average group didn't assume that about their opponents.
• Thus a 10-minute exercise that made people feel richer or poorer was enough to change views.
• For decades, social scientists that feeling deprived compared to other people would motivate political action. But what they found was that it paralyzed people—It makes people turn away, disgusted with the system. Feeling better than other people, though is motivating. It motivates us to protect that position.
• As inequality has grown in recent decades, political interest and participation among the poor has plummeted.
• It's so easy to see what's wrong with people who disagree with you. The hard part is to recognize that if you were in a different position, you might see things differently, just like the subjects in our experiments.
• So people in the above-average group in life are urged to think about the lucky breaks that helped them get where they are. Recognizing those tailwinds gives us the humility we need to see that disagreeing with us doesn't make people idiots. The real hard work is in finding common ground, because it's the well-off who have the power and the responsibility to change things.

Repeat: It is the well-off who have the power and the responsibility to change things.

The psychology of inequality and political division