General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIncome inequality is changing how we think, live, and die
Why society might be more stable if we had more poverty and less inequality.
Researcher Keith Payne has found something surprising: When people flying coach are forced to walk past the pampered first-class flyers in the front of the plane, the likelihood of some sort of air rage incident rises sharply.
In his 2017 book The Broken Ladder, Payne, a social psychologist at the University of North Carolina, argues that humans are hardwired to notice relative differences. When were reminded that were poorer or less powerful than others, we become less healthy, more angry, and more politically polarized.
I reached out to Payne because his argument seems to lead to a counterintuitive conclusion: American society would be more be more stable if we had more poverty and less inequality. I reached out to him to see if thats what hes come to believe after writing his book.
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
Sean Illing
Tell me what you think we least understand about the social costs of inequality.
Keith Payne
One big misunderstanding is that when people start talking about inequality, their minds go straight to poverty, but povertys only half of the equation. Inequality is about the size of the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Its obviously important to be concerned about poverty and to alleviate the suffering that accompanies it, but thats still only half the problem.
Sean Illing
Whats the other half of the problem?
Keith Payne
What people underappreciate is how having extreme inequality driven by the high end of wealth also causes trouble for society and for peoples well-being. Poverty is a related but separate problem. The presence of extreme inequality destabilizes a society in ways that are hard to understand but absolutely devastating.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poverty/income-inequality-is-changing-how-we-think-live-and-die/ar-AAACnRU?li=BBnb7Kz
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,910 posts)llmart
(15,557 posts)Did he mention the fact that our access to so much information on TV and the Internet and in print allows almost everyone to see that there are people in our country who seem to have so much more than the rest of us? No one seems interested in how those people who struggle to just pay the bills cope with life in today's economy. Some people work hard every day and for their entire lives and do everything that they were told to do and find that they are having to buy the cheap toilet paper, or cut coupons for groceries while others are throwing half the food they buy down the disposal because they know there'll be more than enough the next day and the next.
Most people would be content if they could comfortably pay their bills and have some discretionary income left over each month for some fun/entertainment/indulgences, but they don't have that. They never get to go on vacation. I was talking with a man the other day who is married with two children and he was visiting his father in Florida and told me that he wanted to take his children to one of the places in Disney, but when he totalled up what one day would cost for a family of four he couldn't see spending that amount on one day. Why is it so expensive? Are these experiences only supposed to be for the rich children? (Don't get me started on Disney.) Even children learn at an early age who has money and who doesn't, and having it thrown in their faces every day when they are too young to understand it is demoralizing.
The myth of the American dream is just that - a myth.
KPN
(15,665 posts)dont see how unsustainable and de-stabilizing current income inequality already is! Geezus! This isnt rocket science.
Initech
(100,108 posts)I'm hoping that they do in 2020. Nobody can afford anything anymore and companies are going bankrupt left and right. Who will be rich if there's no one left to buy their crap?