Valuing Inequality
Do you think that you know the distributions of wealth in your country or around the world? And what do you know about the effects of inequality? How about the history of such?
Mother Jones published a great article back in 2011, It's the Inequality, Stupid. Among the charts and graphs is one titled, Out of Balance, that illustrates the actual distribution vs what people think vs what they would like. Looks like most people are out of touch even more than the statistics are out of date, because things are more inequitable than then.
and it's more dramatic.
The effects of wealth inequality are more varied and profound than most people think.
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett co-authored a great book, The Spirit Level; Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. The associated website, The Equality Trust, seemed better before they revised it, but they probably gave too much information on the old site that nobody felt the need to buy the book. The site is now more friendly for the public to participate with to alter government policy. Richard presented the material in a TED talk which is well worth watching. Here's the link... link...https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson_how_economic_inequality_harms_societies/transcript
Inequality.org is a good organization with an excellent site that has good social shareables, so check that out. And definitely check out their report: Updates; Billionaire Wealth, U.S. Job Losses and Pandemic Profiteers.
More recent reports indicate that here in the USA the top 0.01% own more than the bottom 90% and just three people own as much as the bottom 50% or 160 million people. In a global context, the six richest own more than one-half of the world's population. Bernie Sanders is one of the few congress persons that ever address these issues and he isn't shy about telling the truths. You can read a bit about that here. We can be sure that these disparities will continue to grow, especially if new massive tax cuts are passed.