Inequality

Economic inequality is a big problem and a hot topic. More and more statistics, graphs and videos are published to make people aware of growing inequality. But despite all data, visualizations and debates ineqaulity keeps on growing. Last week this became again clear to me. The Dow Jones reached an all time high despite the fact that most economic indicators have deteriorated in recent years. In my opinion high stock prices in times of economic recession are a sign of growing wealth inequality. Some people have too much money and don’t know what to do with it, so they buy stocks. Other people even don’t have enough money for basic needs.

It is remarkable that our perception of inequality is quite often wrong.  This briljant video of New Economics Institute about wealth distribution in the US shows what people think the distribution is, what they think is an ideal distribution and what reality is. Conclusion, we are far away from reality. Massive inequality is a fact: 1% of Americans owns 40% of the nation’s wealth. 16% of the Americans lives in poverty.

 The New Economic Foundation gives us ten reasons to care about economic inequality:

1) Your pocket, 2) Your talent, 3)  The economy, 4) Your children, 5) Your streets, 6) Your health, 7) Your happiness, 8) Your planet, 9) Your government and 10) Your sense of global justice.

If we want to solve economic inequality, we have to change our current monetary systems. Without changing the fundamentals, we will never be able to solve this problem. Be part of it. Let’s change the money system!