Economic Inequality

My nephew posted an interesting article on crackbook.  

https://www.deseret.com/2022/2/7/22918555/what-ski-towns-tell-us-about-the-countrys-inequality-crisis-affordable-housing-healthcare?fbclid=IwAR16sXEam2P5YHC1vbZIAoAv_IUPz4lRoS0Yj76bzZRfRjITtrHbz2O3trk

A few quotes:

“…a metric called the Gini coefficient that measures inequality by plotting dispersion of income. A Gini coefficient of 0 indicates perfect equality while 1 means total inequality.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent American Community Survey, the national Gini coefficient is .48. Aspen’s is .56.    …an indicator for how far apart the haves and have-nots are. 

Those disparities are wide and getting wider across the West. According to the Colorado Center on Law and Policy’s self-sufficiency standard published in 2018, in Aspen’s Pitkin County, a family of two (an adult and a preschooler) needs an annual income of $71,274 to make ends meet. That’s way above the 2021 federal poverty benchmark of $17,420 for a family of two, and the highest standard in the state.  …one in four families is struggling to pay their bills.”  

A very complex problem here.  

Do you do what you love, skiing, being outdoors, in a place you love to live, the Mountain West, and live in a rented hovel, because you can’t make enough money to live decently, or do you move to an area that is more affordable, perhaps doing a job that would make more money, but not be as much fun?  

It seems that the alternative, evolving to a more compassionate society, where the wealth is more equitably shared, is not going to happen anytime soon.  

I was lucky…  

I did delay gratification by investing in training longer and at lower wages, which enabled me to earn more later.  

But I was able to train in something that was both satisfying and relatively easy for me, first basic science and then medicine. 

I also spent 25 years in academic medicine, which pays about half of what I now earn in private practice…  

Still, I was paid a very decent living wage, had a house and helped put my kids through college…  

Many people to not have the skills and/or training to make enough money in our current society.  

It feels to me that most of us are living in challenging times…   

The rich keep getting richer, and the poor poorer…  

We seem to be sliding toward authoritarianism, worldwide…  

Through the years I often hear young people call for revolution, perhaps a violent overthrow of the world order and how it operates currently.  

Perhaps that makes the most sense for those who do not see a viable future for themselves…  

I do not believe that is the best way for anyone…

But, perhaps, some sort of shake up is needed… 

Drumpf did shake us up, some of us toward more compassion:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2020/08/trump-is-lsd.html

I am just not sure we were shaken up enough to change toward sufficient compassion…  

Change is difficult… 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2022/01/methods-of-belief.html

I do not pretend to know what might be in the future…  

I can only hope that enough voters can feel that the road that we are traveling currently is not toward one of more compassion…  

And vote for those who can change society toward an increased sharing of wealth…  

As I’ve written before:

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2020/08/black-lives-matter.html

Provide everyone with basic living conditions, eliminate homelessness, dire poverty, fear for personal and family safety, opportunity for education and economic advancement,

And,

 

Give everyone a reason to exist, even if it is the smallest ability to help another…

Namaste