Originally published at: https://prostasia.org/blog/impact-of-inequality/
If you’re a minority, the news cycle has been dreary. Inequality is everywhere, whether it’s toxic bosses who demand you work for free after-hours, rising costs while your wages stay the same, or even seeing men paid better for the same jobs women do. The same inequality that gave rise to the civil rights movement…
2 Likes
Stigma IS giving in to bias, but your illustration is not the best choice. The first two panels for Equality and Equity, overlook the detail that the three observers are stealing. The fans in the seats paid to be there and that’s what funds the ballgame. These three are not paying customers and are just stealing. The third panel is the choice of the ballpark and team as to whether they want to have observers for free. It’s not stigma, it’s paying for what you are taking.
Its a metaphor that gets the point across
1 Like
This is a wonderful goal. But it won’t work unless there are enough people who support it and work for it. Once some people discover that “freeloading” works, they have no incentive to change. Why should they? This is obviously not everyone, but there is a percentage of freeloaders in any group. After a while, the harder working members may start to think “Why am I working so hard? This person has an acceptable life and why can’t I?” Again, not all, but some. As the level of non-contributing population increases, losses need to be made up from somewhere. So, the productive citizens are taxed higher and higher, until they decide to join the freeloaders or they just rebel and insist on changes to the system.
Resources come at a cost. That cost is the efforts of people, and they expect to reap their rewards. They may be generous and charitable, but even charity has limits. Eventually the guarantees are reduced, the requirements to qualify increased, etc. The government can’t really change human nature. Nor can it produce housing, food and medical care from nothing. A government is just a collection of people.
Government has another problem. It needs to treat all citizens equally. It can’t decide on who is really in need and who is just a bum. They try, but human ingenuity finds ways to “game” the system. And you cannot take care of everyone, if no one is working. The US has tried public housing. The apartments were less than desirable, many of the residents weren’t willing to keep their homes in good order, gangs formed the prey on the weak, police did not want to go there. It was not successful. Mixing the needy in with the rest of the public often leads to problems, costs more and promotes an exodus from the neighborhoods. Creating yet another ghetto.
And for all of the criticism of the US, no one here should starve as food is plentiful. But certain rules have to followed and some are unwilling or mentally incapable. You cannot force feed someone who doesn’t want to comply, and you cannot force someone to accept psychological help unless they are a clear danger to others or themselves.
Medical care comes at a hefty cost, whether in the US or in a country with universal healthcare. In the US cost is the ability of insurance to cover the expenses and insurance is generally from the employer. The reason for this is a bit of stupidity by the government. They froze wages for a while, so employers looked for something to incentivize workers and came up with health insurance. Since it was not part of their salary, they could offer something the government didn’t control. Best of all, it wasn’t taxed by the IRS as worker income. A decision with unintended consequences. The failure of medical schools to increase enrollment of number as population has increased as well. On the other hand, many First World countries with universal healthcare can have long waits for service. The wait for a cardiac angioplasty can be days or weeks. In the US, I had mine within 1 HOUR of my heart attack. I’ll take this system for now.
Charities can provide a lot of help, but even they have rules and limits. There is no magic wand to wave and create utopia.
Do I wish things were otherwise? You’re damn right I do. But that doesn’t change what things are NOW. If I seem a little cynical, well nearly 70 years of experience gives me a perspective others may not possess.
Freeing the human race from the slavery and tyranny of Oligarchs is the only way to have equity for the whole human race. The tight grip of profiteering through oil dependence and the banking system needs to end. Also why they’re tightening their grip over our financial freedom. Trying to control the money and food. They “have” and they want to keep 99% to keep “having not”.
Freeing the energy technology that’s been held hostage for over 100 years is the only way. 99% of our social problems would disappear overnight. People can then focus on real living and creativity when we don’t have to spend 80% of our time “surviving”. Not so much actual surviving in the west, but surviving to stay ahead of all that is earned and taken by these antiquated systems and social engineers. Always trying to find new ways for tighter and tighter control over the population. Still more than half the world lives in absolute poverty and day to day surviving IS what they have to do.
Oligarchs run the world and they want none of that. Keep us divided, keep us slaving away for survival, and keep us distracted in-between. Lest we wake up one day and say we’ve had enough of this. We’ve been the frog in the pot for far too long.