How often have you ever walked into any urban area and found that everyone was dressed the same? There’s no denying that visible wealth has shaped how our society operates and the power distribution within it. However, it has come to the point where this idea of “visible wealth” has created economic inequality in our society. Economists such as Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Christakis argue that visible wealth is the primary cause of economic inequality in America. Economic inequality can be defined as the imbalance of wealth in a society, with a large financial gap between the rich and everyone else. While current trends in society such as luxury that make wealth visible are ingrained in American society, research into wealth visibility can
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One main takeaway from the Yale study is that “Wealth visibility triggers a psychological process in social comparison, perhaps causing the subjects to treat the game as if it were a competition” (Saxena). The study showed that the wealthy were reluctant to cooperate with the poor, which could possible mean that they are competitive and greedy for money. We can oftentimes be considered a society that is greedy for money. Money can be dangerous because it can cause people to become selfish and greedy when one has a large amount of it. Because of this, the stereotypical rich individual doesn’t want to share their money and wants to be better than everyone else, causing others to suffer. We must come to our senses and realize that money doesn’t always equate to happiness. As Mark Putnam puts it, “One must not let money override their ethical principles and come to terms with your needs and wants in your life”. In order to reduce greed, we have to realize that some of our “wants” are oftentimes not necessary for our lifestyle and that we could live without them. We also have to not let money control our daily decisions and cause us to make unethical decisions. Similar to greed, competition can also be a major driving force in wealth inequality. Some people want to gain as much money as possible so that they can think of themselves as better as everyone else. This sense of arrogance causes people to be selfish with their money, which in turn causes the economy to suffer. Basically, the rich people want to keep getting richer which causes the poor to get poorer. Similar steps to reducing greed should be taken to reduce competitiveness- rich people have to realize that money doesn’t always equate to happiness and that their selfish attitudes are causing economic inequality to be present. Having rich people that are
One main takeaway from the Yale study is that “Wealth visibility triggers a psychological process in social comparison, perhaps causing the subjects to treat the game as if it were a competition” (Saxena). The study showed that the wealthy were reluctant to cooperate with the poor, which could possible mean that they are competitive and greedy for money. We can oftentimes be considered a society that is greedy for money. Money can be dangerous because it can cause people to become selfish and greedy when one has a large amount of it. Because of this, the stereotypical rich individual doesn’t want to share their money and wants to be better than everyone else, causing others to suffer. We must come to our senses and realize that money doesn’t always equate to happiness. As Mark Putnam puts it, “One must not let money override their ethical principles and come to terms with your needs and wants in your life”. In order to reduce greed, we have to realize that some of our “wants” are oftentimes not necessary for our lifestyle and that we could live without them. We also have to not let money control our daily decisions and cause us to make unethical decisions. Similar to greed, competition can also be a major driving force in wealth inequality. Some people want to gain as much money as possible so that they can think of themselves as better as everyone else. This sense of arrogance causes people to be selfish with their money, which in turn causes the economy to suffer. Basically, the rich people want to keep getting richer which causes the poor to get poorer. Similar steps to reducing greed should be taken to reduce competitiveness- rich people have to realize that money doesn’t always equate to happiness and that their selfish attitudes are causing economic inequality to be present. Having rich people that are