Income Inequality In American Society
It is strange how the human race has advanced so much technologically yet we find ourselves depressed, and ridden with anxiety. Individuals have grown increasingly selfish. If we want to improve the quality of life, we need to move away from materialistic standards and go towards improving “..the psychological and social well being of whole societies.” Many say that the behavior of the poor attributed to a “broken society” but it is actually the rich who attribute most to the “broken society”. However, the truth is that a broken society is derived from ever growing inequality. However, rich people still tend to be healthier and happier than poor people. Regardless of society and the country that people live in, “Higher incomes are related to lower death rates at every level in society.” Health and happiness are related to an individual's income.
In places such as the United States, wealth and income seem to be increasing. The top 1% of the people in the economy rake in more than 20% of the nations income, and yet, even with the income have more than doubled in the past three decades, happiness and health do not seem to have increased. With increases in income, it also seen that people are becoming more depressed and anxiety driven. Wealth seems to have not helped equality but added on to the social and economic inequality.
Poverty or Inequality? Does income inequality in a society make a difference? Most likely. The U.S is amongst the top earners and surprisingly also amongst the most unequal. Gini coefficient: measures inequality, the lower the gini coefficient, the better. A low number represents greater inequality. Between the poorest half and the richest, the poorest get about 20-25% of all incomes, whereas the rich receive 75-80%.It has also been shown that poor-health and violence is most closely associated with unequal societies. It is not just poor health but issues such as obesity, drugs and much more. To improve the quality of life, we must reduce social and economic inequality. Possession or materialistic objects are markers of individual status everywhere. However, more equal societies do better not because of status issues but probably because they have more access to food, clean water, and shelter.
Countries with higher inequality tend to be amongst the top earners. As great as that sounds, individuals within those countries suffer from inequality as well as poor health and high violence. Individuals who reside in a rich country no longer see the prevailing need to increase living standards, since there is an idea that standards are being filled with things with monetary or materialistic value. Some will choose to keep up with society and its latest trend rather than to feed themselves. It is said that for once, the poor are becoming more obese than the rich.
How Inequality Gets Under The Skin
In reality, it is actually the individuals who have poor health and “...are violent.” not the society. It is the people who make up the society. Psychotherapy and its attempts of making individuals “...less vulnerable” is not what society needs. It is not the solution to inequality. Fix problems caused by inequality, we must fight inequality itself. Individual psychology and inequality are related. The reason why we haven’t advanced in solving inequality is because we don’t understand the relationship between “individual psychology and inequality”.
When looking at anxiety levels amongst the individuals in society, it is notably seen that anxiety levels have risen, especially and in college students. Anxiety levels have become so high that ‘...by the late 1980s, the average American child was more anxious than child psychiatric patients in the 1950s. It is not all bad, at the same time anxiety levels were increasing, more individuals were able to say “I am a person of worth” compared to 12% in the 1950’s and 80% in the late 1980s. Increased anxiety leads individuals to uptake a more defensive approach, in attempt to raise the confidence. Rises in anxiety have actually been accompanied by narcissism. Both of these are caused by “social elusive threat”. It is hard to disregard social status because it measures our worth and value in society. These standards and problems are difficult for adolescents. It is no wonder they revert to depression and self-harm. When we look back to the French Revolution and recognize their slogan of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” we are able to see that these issue were recognized way before.
Continuous living in an unequal society can have detrimental effects to one's health. It impacts one's self-esteem and leads to higher rates of anxiety and depression. Society cannot progress with inequality knocking at its door. To even make an attempt to solve this issue, we must first tackle the issue (inequality) first hand. It creates materialistic standards that harm our children into keeping up with the latest trends which stimulates defensive attitudes that lead to anxiety and comes hand in hand with depression.
