Inequality

Disparities Within the United States

Most Americans, when asked to define democracy in this country, are inclined to think of all citizens as having equal rights and responsibilities. This is not entirely true, for good or ill.

Probably the two most important qualifications for modern American life are education and wealth, neither of which is widely and fairly available. Your opportunities are many times enhanced if you possess at least one—and especially both. This leaves many hundreds of thousands of people forced to make the best they can of their lives--and luck.

On the other hand, if you have inherited a certain amount of wealth, and have at least a modicum of eduation, your chances are very much higher.

As Shakespeare would say, “Aye, there’s the rub!”

The best solution appears to be the Vote. At the same time, it can also be the worst. The uneducated can easily be led to vote For or Against, based in many, many cases on religious belief—a subject which should be sacrosanct. (The elections throughout the country this year have been loaded with religious pressure upon those with whom they do not agree, but should have no right to prevail.) An enormous problem may be that the uneducated seem to be outgrowing the educated in numbers, thus increasing their power in the country as a whole by sheer numbers.

At the same time, at the other end of the spectrum is the problem of wealth—or too much of it. On one hand, there are benefactors like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who have devoted their lives and wealth to helping other people. Thank God, there are people like them!

Nevertheless—and excluding people like them—it would appear painfully obvious that the disparities in wages must be rethought—not only rethought, but legislated or relegislated.

Here we are, living in the “Land of the Free” with many thinking only of sumptuous lives, while many, many more are living in indescribable filth and want!

ARW 6/18/10