Watch Richard Wilkinson’s TED talk which charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart: real effects on health, lifespan, even such basic values as trust. Do you agree with Richard Wilkinson on the detrimental effects of economic inequality? How does this relate to what we are talking about this week, anomie?
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28 thoughts on “Discussion Forum 9: Economic Inequality”
I agree with Richard Wilkinson on the detrimental effects of economic inequality. The rich have everything way better than the poor. For example, more of the poor countries have a higher crime rate than the rich. There are many examples of correlations that Richard showed us which is evidence of how unequal the poor and rich are. One of the correlation tables show us that USA is twice as rich as other countries like Portugal, Greece, etc. I agree with Richard’s line “Income means something very important within our societies and nothing between them.” The rate of health and social problems is more present and worse in the richer countries. This isn’t healthy for our society. It’s practically breaking us down/apart. This relates to anomie because it shows us how unequal the rich and poor are. We are different in many ways, not just income wise. “Delinquency, crime, and suicide are often reactions to anomie.” The poor are more likely to commit and fear crime due to lack of resources, income, etc. They are also more likely to commit suicide because they can’t fend for themselves, it gets really rough and mentally draining for some of the poor.
I agree the ones who consider themselves as poor or middle class tend to lower their standers and because of this inequality begins due to the fact that they are categorized by policies, social culture, norms, and the unequal distribution of wealth and power.
Hi Amy, it’s very sad to see how poor people are the ones most affected by mental health and crime causing them to commit suicide, they just don’t have the resources rich people have access help.
I agree with you, poor people are the ones who tend to commit crimes and suicides since they do not have the same opportunity that people with money have. It is sad to see how in the society we live in, the rich are treated like kings and the poor like animals.
Hello Amy, I agree with you. Poor people are more likely to commit a crime or suicide because of their lack of resources and money. Rich people do not have to think about paying for a house bill or about the food and cooking
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I agree with Richard Wilkinson’s TED talk because within our societies we look at relative income, social position, and social status in which we can compare differences especially between the rich and poor. For instance, he demonstrates a graph of homicide rates being higher in more unequal U.S states and Canadian provinces. The scale shows the differences of both; it goes from 15 homicides per million up to 150. Then he compares the proportion of the population in prison which also tells us the relationship is driven by more crimes but the more unequal societies are, the more likely there is to be harsher sentencing. Overall we can say that great equality makes the most difference at the bottom but has some benefits even at the top. The factors that come with this are the psychological effects on inequality, the idea of the feeling of superiority, inferiority, and the fear of negative judgment. This relates to anomie because due to social status categorize and comparison of being unequal people tend to overestimate their positive attributes and underestimate their negative ones therefore poor individuals adapt to their deprived situation by lowering their economic goals.
Hi Vanessa. I agree that Richard provides us with a different perspective. He goes into detail about how unequal the poor and rich are. There are more differences and hardships than people think and he informed us about those.
Hi Vanessa, that is so true about the psychological effects on people, the sense of feeling inferior and the negative judgment that comes with it, specially when you are poor.
Hi Vanessa, Richard was great with showing a lot of examples and graphs we understood. I also agree that great equality makes the most difference at the bottom but has some benefits even at the top.
Hello Vanessa,
I like that you pointed out the psychological effects of being “the idea of the feeling of superiority, inferiority, and the fear of negative judgment”. There are real world implications to the lives of everyday people and the state of their mental and physical health. There are also real world impacts of crime that stems, in a significant way, from inequality. If we as a society take these things seriously and move to really take action to change the US, a side effect of making people’s lives easier is less crime.
–Cuffia
I agree 100% with Richard Wilkinson, his analysis about how the greater the gap between the rich and the poor the greater the levels of crime. What this means is that the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer, the distribution of wealth is very unequal, this causes great adversities to poor people when it comes to health, education, lifespan, and trust among people. All these adversities leads many times to people to engage in illegal activities like prostitution, theft, drugs, etc. however, we rarely talk about the white collar crime rich people commit, we tend to focus only on street crime committed by poor people and people of color. This concepts for sure relates to anomie because these inequalities causes people to lose hope, making them feel like there’s no sense of pursuing ideals or purpose in life, poor people see that even by working hard there’s no gains in their wealth while on the other hand rich people keep getting richer. When people feel like there’s no point on pursuing an ideal or purpose in life it’s easier to fall into the easy way of getting money which is committing a crime, and sadly many times in committing suicide.
I agree with you every day we see how people with money and power get more every day and how the poor get poorer every day because money is not enough for them. The crimes committed by people with money are a thousand times worse than those committed by the poor, but since money can erase almost all of that, it is not mentioned.
Hi Julio. I agree that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer considering all of the statistics we saw in the video. It is really concerning because there should be more equality and less inequality. The poor deserve so much better.
Hello Julio,
The hopelessness that is induced in many people from being beat down can lead to suicide, mental health issues and crime. All these different aspects come together and have impacts that one might not immediately think of. Our environment (the society around us, the house or apartment we live in, etc.) matters very much and can have far reaching consequences when that environment is a strain.
–Cuffia
I agree with Richard Wilkinson we see how economic inequality affects every point of our lives in the society in which we live. Income is extremely important since health depends on that, as Wilkinson says, and it is no secret to anyone that unequal countries do worse. People with money have a better chance of succeeding than low-income people, we can see where Wilkinson shows it to us in all the graphs, the worst part always falls into the unequal state, where even the new generation is affected by that. This relates to anomie because we can see that inequality does exist between the rich and the poor in all aspects. The rich have more opportunities, the poor have to face more obstacles in life that lead them to commit crimes and suicides.
Hi Endrika, I agree with you that economic inequality affects every point of society. We see it today the government doesn’t do anything really to help the poor people that’s why the homeless rate increased.
Amy, Vanessa, Julio, and Endrika, thank you so much for your thoughtful comments and positive interaction on the forum! Good work!
Yes, I do agree with Richard Wilkinson on the detrimental effects of economic inequality. Rich people have it way better than the poor because obviously they are rich and more stable. Richard talks a lot about inequality on behalf of poor and rich. Also he talks about how the living conditions in both are different, the rich people live in great conditions and good neighborhoods when the poor don’t really have a choice on where to live. Living in poor neighborhoods you don’t really have access to great things and of course the food choices are not as good and healthy. When living in a rich area you have a lot of good, healthy choices. He also mentions education and shows a chart on child well being is better in more equal countries. Mental illness is more common in more unequal societies which is true in the more poor areas people seem to be depressed and mentally ill also sometimes suicidal because they think there’s no point of living.
This relates to anomie because when Richard explained about the poor and rich he mentioned mental illness in these poor countries which the poor deal with more and crimes are high in these poor countries.
I agree there are much more problems with inequality especially they target the poor, Richards talk does explain how poor individuals have it better than the poor and the struggles of basic numbers that are overall, compared.
I agree with Richard Wilkinson on the detrimental effect of economic inequality. he showed us a lot of data that explained to us about the riches and the poorest countries. He said that rich people have rich sons and that poor people have poor sons. I believe that this is because of the way they think, they think that because they are poor they sons will be poor too. He also said that the poorest countries have a higher rate of crime and this is because poor people commit crimes to get money to keep living.
Hey Francisco,
I agree with your statement with the rich and poor kids that might have the same life style. The kids will always look up to the parents and try to be like them. The new generation shouldn’t get the same life style, they should change it and make better.
Hello,
I agree with Richard Wilkinson regarding the detriments of an economically unequal society. With this inequality anomie can take root and flourish. The economic forces are a strain and with lack of a social safety net or police that actually do their jobs for all citizens, there is not enough of a support system out there for people who run into adversity. Having a society where social upward mobility is a real aspect of society. This involves making sure that everyone has real educational and economic opportunities. It’s once these gaps are bridged then we can make our society a happier, healthier, more equal and just place with less crime.
–Cuffia
Hey Cuffia,
I agree with your statement with having the same economic opportunities, it will make the society a better outcome than before. Work together, we all be happy.
I agree with Richard Wilkinson on his TED talk about explaining his views of what he thinks of the society that’s different between rich and poor. The rich society could do basically what ever they wanna do with their money while the poor have to grind hard and be smart with money moves. He talks about that all crimes come from the poor society and when those people get kids, they will have the same society as them.
I agree with Richard Wilkinson society views rich and poor people how the rich are looked at a way better than poor and treated differently and the poor basically have a hard lifestyle since society makes it ok to be be better than the other