This is an interesting study of relative wealth

[rabid1st]

One of the things that holds me back from wanting wealth, is this tendency which I was in a position to observe in others in my youth. It made me very angry. But I suppose, the real take-away here is that the people themselves are not to blame, rather it is a set of circumstances that we all contribute to that makes economic inequality such a problem in our modern world.

The important thing to remember is that it does nobody any favors to have all of the money concentrated in the hands of a few elites.

Rae

Comments

Except that....

[susanb03.livejournal.com]

this is a stereotype. We have a BMW (that was given to us from our church when we REALLY needed a car) and we're not 'those' people..... just saying...

But...if you were given a BMW

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

...then you don't really fall into a place of privilege. It was, by your description an act of charity, which would improve your awareness of need. This phenomenon isn't really a stereotype, but rather a tendency among the privileged to discount any advantages they've had and begin to attack people who have less. It is a human trait, this tendency, and proven over many platforms, like the scientist points out.

He also points out that some wealthy people are quite generous. But, there is a tendency to become less giving as you gain more and more...I believe this is because privilege taps into our primal territorial instincts. We begin to see ourselves as special, entitled, if we get more and more stuff, which essentially means that wealth inequalities like we have in the US are probably responsible for most of the problems that we are developing...with pushes for austerity, like the recent cut of funding for food stamps.

Having an elite class of people feels familiar to us, as humans, but it isn't good for us in the long run...not for the majority of us. As you might have recognized when you needed help recently for your family. People do come through for you, but the systems in place in our country, are not designed to help anyone who is downtrodden.

[xlostangelx.livejournal.com]

I'm always shocked how people don't see the role privilege plays in their success and subsequently their wealth.

I'd never heard of these experiments but they are fascinating and really not shocking if you think about it. As much as we don't like to admit it, cheating and lying play a huge role in success and wealth. Look at Wall Street.

I wish we as a society would really talk about wealth inequality without falling back on wealth redistribution. Education and opportunity inequality needs to be addressed along with generational poverty and my biggest annoyance irresponsible breeding.

Thanks for posting the video.

[astitchintime-9.livejournal.com]

We needed a university study to prove what most of us experience every day.

Sigh.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I am definitely with you on irresponsible breeding. The problem with that is that people are operating purely on instinct with breeding and all attempt to even stem the tide are met with a religious zeal that is frankly puzzling to me. I mean, I am not saying one group gets to control who can breed, because obviously, we are not very good at things like that. But, people seem to have no ingrained reasoning ability either. They want only smart people or rich people to breed. Where would be as a species if we only let smart people breed? Well...we might be smarter? But the problem is that I am smart enough to know that a lot of lesser intellects are more productive or braver or more emotionally developed than I am.

What has always fascinated me about people is how we all operate mostly on instinctive behaviors for survival. There is very little higher reasoning applied to our behaviors. We find the best and brightest mate we can. We horde stuff for hard times. Money is one of the stupidest things we ever invented. After all, you can't eat or breath money...money isn't going to stop anyone from dying...or getting disease. It is a trading system. A social contract that will hold up until such time as the rich push the poor too far. Then, it all goes to bloody revolution, the way it has since the dawn of time.

And what is driving the people who have the most money is simple territorial imperative. They are hording nuts for the winter and using their "power" to get more and more stuff. The amazing thing is that we are all giving them this power. It is illusionary, except that others enforce it for them. What the Libertarians know, not that I agree with their philosophy, is that when the times comes they can shoot the big ape. Big ape grabs tree and threatens others...other pay big ape respect he feels he deserves...big ape maybe gives others a few nuts. Some other ape kills big ape and takes over the same role.

Another very simple, logical idea is that we all work for the good of society, for the basics of living and we assume that every human deserves health care, food, shelter, clothing, a worry free old age and an opportunity to excel. If we did that as our standard, we would have a lot better world than we've had so far. And I do believe people would work if that's what they got. Because, right now, people work...for so much less and under a weight of fear that is ridiculous in a planet dominating species. We have met the enemy and he is us!

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Sadly, yes! Also, sadly, it was not believed.

The thing that has always frustrated me about people is how complacent we are to horrible situations that defy reason. We currently have all of this wealth in the hands of a few. It isn't good for anyone, but we don't want to even address it. Instead we spend our days listening to things like the Zimmerman trial...something we have absolutely no control over in the end.