Imagine a country with widespread social problems. Hell, why imagine when you live in America? Rampant obesity, violence, drug use, depression and anxiety, incarceration, teen pregnancy and a life expectancy below that of other developed nation.
A broken education system that continues to test poorly when compared internationally.
A lack of social mobility as the American Dream appears to be in its death throes and a country that lacks unity or trust in almost every aspect: in politics, in neighborhoods, between people and in the news.
It makes American society sound pretty sick doesn’t it? What if there was one factor behind all of this social sickness? What if we could change that? Would America make a miraculous recovery?
The recovery may be possible because there is certainly one factor that correlates with every one of the ills: economic inequality. With a Gini Coefficient hovering around .45 to .50 — it peaked after the Great Recession at .50 — America is an incredibly unequal democracy.
The Gini Coefficient ranges from between 0, perfectly egalitarian, to 1, where all the wealth is concentrated in the hands of one.
According to an associate editor at “The Atlantic,” Jordan Weissmann, a new study conducted by professors at the University of California and Harvard shows income inequality may have been less severe in 1774 than it is today — even after counting the impact of slavery.
It’s also worth considering that in the modern world we are more unequal than even Russia or India. Keep in mind that India has a population of 1.2 billion and roughly 69 percent of their population lives on less than $2 day.
We can do better.
In “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger,” Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett use statistics to analyze the connection between all of these problems and inequality.
It makes sense because humans are very social beings. When they are always competing instead of cooperating, trust and happiness decline steeply.
Rampant consumerism has led to a society that is deeply unhappy, and for what? Why can’t we work together to make our society and the world better rather than relentlessly pursuing our false god of material wealth?
Due to Supreme Court decisions culminating in Citizens United v. FEC, the floodgates controlling the flow of money into politics are open wide ensuring that democracy is no longer by the people for the people, but instead by the dollar for the dollar.
When did it become acceptable to say the rich are demigods of economy, industry and happiness, while the poor are welfare parasites who should go get a job? Have we really dehumanized ourselves to the point that someone’s bank account makes them human and deserving of respect?
Where corporate welfare is fine and dandy but “entitlements,” which people have worked their whole lives paying into, have no place? Where our entire economy is held hostage by the whim of corporate lobbyists so their overlords can continue to rake in unneeded tax cuts while the poor see programs they depend on to survive cut dramatically.
When did this happen? What happened to American Dream? The American Dream is dead for most of America.
You don’t feed the masses with table scraps from the rich. Things need to change.
Andrew Deskins can be reached at [email protected]