Poverty & Income Inequality

Poverty & Income Inequality

Mumbai: the wealthy go here, and the poor go there.


Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Big Questions

Why does the United States, the richest country on earth, have more poverty than any other advanced democracy?

  
Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality by Angus Deaton
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

“Poverty, by America” author Matthew Desmond says if the top 1% of Americans paid the taxes they owed, it would raise $175 billion each year: “That is just about enough to pull everyone out of poverty.”

Matthew Desmond

From a wealthy person’s perspective, why shouldn’t the wealthy stay wealthy, and the poor stay poor? It’s always been that way, and it will always be that way.

Could a tax on the global mega-rich help lift billions of people out of poverty?

Republicans tend to cling to abstract theories about how the economy works—theories about high tariffs or tax cuts, for example, which tend to concentrate wealth upward—while Democrats are more pragmatic, willing to pay attention to facts on the ground and to historical lessons about what works and what doesn’t.

Heather Cox Richardson

Why haven’t we closed the pay gap? Should the Federal Minimum Wage be increased to $15/hour?

Is racial bias already deeply embedded in the secret social algorithms of the computing cloud?

  • How do we find it?
  • How do we eliminate it?


Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America by Karen Petrou

Is inequality in America irreversible?

Is it income inequality we are unhappy about? Or is it more about fairness, justice, and opportunity inequality when money tips the scale for the wealthy?

What happens when you give basic income to the poor?

This L.A. Architect Has a Tiny House Solution to the City’s Big Homelessness Problem

Is eviction an epidemic in the U.S.?

Why are so many Americans afraid and/or against socialism? What is the Lesser of Evils?

  • Socialism’s potential to narrow our staggering worldwide economic inequality? or,
  • Capitalism’s potential to create jobs and lift people out of poverty? or,
  • A Hybrid’s potential to balance and blend the best features of both economic systems? — sp

Someday….. parents will not have to choose between (a) putting food on the table for their children; or (b) paying for rent to put a roof over their heads; or (c) taking care of their family’s health.

Big Picture

Big Picture / Human Society / Social Organization & Change / Poverty

EVERYONE needs to get taught, fed, and healed to have a sustainable society.

Feeding America

Income inequality

One Percent

The 1% Doth Protest Too Much

The 99% in the U.S. happen to be the ones that go to work everyday and actually do everything: design and engineer the products; manufacture, sell, distribute, repair and maintain the products; and provide all the services we rely on that make companies successful and grow, share valuation grow, and hence, shareholders wealthy. So when some CEOs (the 1%) earn more than 1,000 times the median salary of their employees, maybe the 1% shouldn’t be surprised when workers say respectfully, “What’s up with that?”

sp

Supreme Court

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