Why America is the most unequal country in the developed world is a cultural one
It is why it doesn't help the poor and the homeless, and why it kisses the feet of the rich and successful.
It is why it is an uphill battle until recently to get it to be a bit more socialist and to actually care about everyone.
Yes it is in part because of the puritan work ethic, which is a source of it, but its this ultimate thing about America's culture:
American culture separates the strong from the weak and rewards the strong and punishes the weak. America glamorizes "the struggle of life" and "the victory over the struggle"
This is why America is more economically unequal than Russia, Nigeria, and Iran, according to the CIA GINI index.
This is why America loves telling the tale of the person who faced impossible odds but succeeded. That's why its in love of retelling the rags to riches stories (just look at the DNC and RNC conventions.)
This is why we have one party that celebrates unadulterated social darwinism and another party that asks for "social darwinism lite"
This is why giving freedoms to minorities has to be framed in giving "equal opportunity" rather than "equal outcomes", and everything has to be an uphill fight and once you succeed society praises you. America crushed the Native Americans but celebrated their leaders who fought valiantly.
This is why no one cares if women have to do more work just to be on par with men. France helps mothers while America doesn't care if women are overwhelmed with being a working mom. Women who are able to succeed while handling such a huge load are praised but no one in society thinks "maybe we should lighten her workload."
This is why bullying is rampant and even permitted in schools in America till recently. You must learn to stand up for yourself because you must learn to be strong.
This is why everyone must work hard in order to survive, there is little help to get employment, and there are few safety nets. The weak and lazy must be punished and hardship builds character.
This is why the poor and homeless are hardly helped, because they are seen as "the weak" in darker thinking and more optimistically seen as a "test of strength" as in people will remain poor and homeless until they "learn to be strong" and "get their act together."
This is why an egalitarian America is merely a fantasy in modern day America. Economic egalitarianism is seen as "rewarding weakness."
This is why we go on "buyer beware" and the criminals and con artists are allowed to roam free. America is a predator's paradise because the predators "help separate the strong from the weak."
This is why there is little help for the American people to be able to cope with life compared to countries in Europe. Americans must learn to be strong and hardship builds character and strength.
This is why people who take their own life are often seen as weak and cowards.
This is why Americans have little interest in breaking up big corporations or doing anything that "punishes the strong."
This is why Americans don't care about America bullying and taking advantage of other countries. These countries are seen as weak and "who cares about the weak."
It is perhaps why in part that America's such a successful country, and why people can live in such harsh conditions in the U.S. and live all throughout this vast country, even in the brutal Arizona heat and the cold of Minnesota.
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If anyone detects this as a "hyper masculine" ideal, then it probably is. A hyper masculine ideal that celebrates the wild, darwinism, and the savagery of the wild and survival in such a harsh environment as a "test of strength" and celebrates "the strong" and thus conversely punishes the weak. It could also be seen as the result of America being influenced by "the religion of Capitalism" and its Puritan roots.
Yes Republicans want to protect military spending but there are these undercurrents of American culture that really keep any progress from happening in making America not such a hard country to live in (unless you born in a well off family, are talented, or are just lucky.)
A quote from a description of Glengarry Glen Ross, a famous play:
Economic Inequality in America is BY DESIGN
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Via the FT, a new study compares perceptions of inequality across advanced nations. The big takeaway here is that Americans are more likely than Europeans to believe that they live in a middle-class society, even though income is really much less equally distributed here than in Europe. I’ve truncated the table to show the comparison between the U.S. and France: the French think they live in a hierarchical pyramid when they are in reality mostly middle-class, Americans are the opposite.
As the paper says, other evidence also says that Americans vastly underestimate inequality in their own society – and when asked to choose an ideal wealth distribution, say that they like Sweden.
Why the difference? American exceptionalism when it comes to income distribution – our unique suspicion of and hostility to social insurance and anti-poverty programs – is, I and many others would argue, very much tied to our racial history. This does not, however, explain in any direct way why we should misperceive real inequality: people could oppose aid to Those People while understanding how rich the rich are. There may, however, be an indirect effect, because the racial divide empowers right-wing groups of all kinds, which in turn issue a lot of propaganda dismissing and minimizing inequality.
Interesting stuff.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/inequality-delusions/
So our racial history, in his view, does not directly lead to inequality - other than between races - but by empowering "right-wing groups of all kinds" it does so indirectly.
The other part of our problem is that we perceive that the US is much more egalitarian (like Sweden) than it actually is, while Europeans perceive they live in an unequal society (like ours) even though they have it much better. Our misperception regarding equality must play a role for many people in not pushing for change.
At other times, Krugman has said that the US would have to adopt European fiscal, tax, regulatory, labor and social policies in order for us to achieve European levels of income equality. That seems a long way from happening.
It is interesting that Americans say they want a degree of income equality similar to what Sweden actually has, but we are not willing to adopt the taxation, labor and economic policies that Sweden has used to accomplish this. Instead too many call it "socialism" and reject what Sweden has used to create the type of society that we claim to actually want.
Makes you shake your head.
Last edited Sat Jan 17, 2015, 03:02 PM - Edit history (1)
which I'm referring to as Caregiverism.
What would a Caring Society look like?
Caregiverism is a systems model for cultural transformation, expanding the definition of care and the role of "caregiver" in caring about and for humans, communities, non-human animals and our environment. Caregiverism supports a caring, nurturing, collaborative worldview -- allowing global communities to thrive rather than merely survive – in sharp contrast to the current competitive, exploitative, destructive worldviews and systems. A wholistic awareness of Interbeing (interconnectedness), and thus making choices of integrity and respect, is inherent in Caregiverism.
Good post. K&R