Very interesting article, Fred. Thanks for passing it on. I pull out
these quotes:
"So, we're not simply talking about how inequality affects the poor.
These effects seem to affect the vast majority of the population."
"It isn't that health is worse in the poorest areas of our societies,
but it's worse in societies with bigger income differences between
rich and poor."
"In the more equal states, two thirds of the population feel they can
trust other people. And down in your most unequal U.S. states, and I'm
afraid New York comes at the absolute bottom =97 but so do some of the
southern states =97 only about a third trust each other."
"Inequality is damaging to the social quality of life of all of
us....) More equality seems to switch social relationships from being
about status competition, where we think of where we are in relation
to each other to how much we see each other as cooperative and mutual
and with reciprocity and empathy being important."
"And we find actually that innovation seems to be lower in more
unequal societies, not higher."
I see this as information I would want to share with our students and
parents, to begin to shift the dialogue around alleviating the effects
of poverty. It may serve to engage more people than the other
approach, and at a minimum puts accurate information out there to
which people can react. As noted in the article, a strong reluctance
on the part of Americans to discuss inequality will be a major
stumbling block in creating conversation. Ironic, isn't it? that
Americans (many of us anyway) are so committed to equality that we
won't even entertain the notion that we might fall short in some
areas.
A quick reaction. Thanks for bringing it up!
Take care,
Bill Ivey
Stoneleigh-Burnham School
On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 7:10 AM, Fred Bartels <fredbartels@gmail.com> wrote=
:
> http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04022010/transcript_inequality.html
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