"Envy, Scorn and Shutdown"

[applegrove]

Envy, Scorn and Shutdown

By NANCY FOLBRE at Economix, NY Times

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/envy-scorn-and-shutdown/?smid=re-share

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Cross-national comparisons suggest that inequality can literally undermine democratic institutions, perhaps because the very rich find them inconvenient. The political scientist Christian Houle finds that inequality is associated with an increased “probability of backsliding from democracy to dictatorship.”

Many of the causal links are obvious. Those with money to invest in campaign contributions and lobbying exercise a disproportionate influence on political outcomes. Apparently, a few super-rich individuals can supersede the influence of a business community that has more to gain from political compromise.

The reduced size and growing insecurity of the middle class weaken the political influence of a buffer group that has a stake in mediating conflict at least to the extent of averting government shutdowns.

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Furthermore, what people feel may be at least as important as what they think. The shutdown is fueled more by anger than by analysis. Its hot-tempered, intransigent mood seems entirely consistent with a new wave of social science research documenting the relevance of phenomena below the surface of the conscious mind, like loss of trust, emotional frustration and displaced aggression.

Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett provide a broad summary in “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger,” showing that income inequality across states within the United States, as well as across countries, is associated with a higher level of socially dysfunctional outcomes in a variety of domains, including health, education, obesity and incarceration.




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