Posted by Meri-Tuuli on November 14, 2006, at 13:39:02
In reply to Work, posted by TexasChic on November 13, 2006, at 18:12:50
Hey TC!
>I just think what's not as well known is how rare and difficult it is, and how much most people struggle.
You hit the nail on the head. I think this is completely underemphasized in American society. In fact, theres a whole series on TV/a book written by a famous contemporary philosopher here called Alain de Botton... and its called "status anxiety"
I thoroughly urge you to check it out. For instance, it says, well exactly what you say, that for many the 'American dream' is very hard to achieve, and its very very hard to move out of your social rank you were born into.
Also, there's actually an index of a countries 'distribution of wealth' so, in effect, its a measure of how 'equal' a society is in terms of economic income. Like, you could have a country which was techically very rich, but only a tiny handful of the people had this money and the rest were dirt poor, as compared to say, somewhere were people earnt more or less the same income.
So, for instance, the US has an 'equality index' of (ie the distribution of wealth) of 45, whilst Finland has a distribution of 26.9. For comparison, the country with the highest 'inequal income' is Namibia with 70, whilst the lowest is Sweden/Beligium both with 25. It should be noted that alot of the African countries score around 50, which isn't so far off the value for America...So basically, you have quite an unequal income distribution, comparable to some of the countries in Africa. I guess its personal opinion whether its viewed as a good thing or not. See below for explanation....these are CIA statisics, too.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2172.html
Anyway sorry this is rather heavy, but I just wanted to say, I fully hear what you're saying. I mean, for a start, to get a college education in the states you have to pay through the nose, right? I mean, yeah, sure they're scholarships and stuff, but there's still and inequality there. If you're 'averagely bright' and are dirt poor, well you're never going to go to a, for example, Ivy league college, are you? It would be too expensive. (I could be wrong, of course.) But, if you've got rich parents, and you're averagely bright, then they can afford to have all kinds of tutors help you, and you're gonna be able to afford to go in the first place, so you're going to get an Ivy league education, get some good job.... so its not every equal.
I mean, in the UK you can at least go to Oxford/Cambridge, without any special help/scholarships etc etc even if you're dirt poor but bright....
Hmmm, sorry this is turning rather political too! But its just something I'm (vaguely) interested in.
Kind regards, and thanks for the patience!Meri
____________________________________________If you want to find out what the numbers mean:
This index measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income in a country. The index is calculated from the Lorenz curve, in which cumulative family income is plotted against the number of families arranged from the poorest to the richest. The index is the ratio of (a) the area between a country's Lorenz curve and the 45 degree helping line to (b) the entire triangular area under the 45 degree line. The more nearly equal a country's income distribution, the closer its Lorenz curve to the 45 degree line and the lower its Gini index, e.g., a Scandinavian country with an index of 25. The more unequal a country's income distribution, the farther its Lorenz curve from the 45 degree line and the higher its Gini index, e.g., a Sub-Saharan country with an index of 50. If income were distributed with perfect equality, the Lorenz curve would coincide with the 45 degree line and the index would be zero; if income were distributed with perfect inequality, the Lorenz curve would coincide with the horizontal axis and the right vertical axis and the index would be 100.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/docs/notesanddefs.html#2172
poster:Meri-Tuuli
thread:702703
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20061106/msgs/703393.html