The Trifecta

Hello, World!

A friend might describe me as an average student from an average family living an average life in sunny Southern California. Yet, from another perspective I am one the happiest, most privileged, wealthy and well-educated individuals in the world. The many barriers between me and the rest of the world create an illusion of normalcy, effectively concealing the relative opulence I live in. Coming to terms with my own ignorance to the disparity in living conditions in my own backyard has inspired me to dig deeper into the concept of inequality and its greater implications.  

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After entering college dead-set on becoming a doctor, a class I took in my first semester opened my eyes to the potential for impact the field of global health offers. Since then I have invested my energies into acquiring the tools I believe to be necessary for impact through studying Global Health and Mathematics/Economics. Professionally, I am interested in Health Metrics and Evaluation, particularly in developing settings. I am optimistic about the future, but plagued by the lingering fear that widespread suffering is intrinsic to human existence.

Incredible economic growth over the past century drastically improved standards of living though out the world. Innovations in health and technology completely shift the outlook for the future of mankind. In spite of this, people die of starvation every year. Can humanity eradicate the most basic causes of human suffering while maintaining acceptable standards of living for the rich world? If this is possible, would the necessary ethical shift diminish incentive for progress at the frontier of innovation? Is human satisfaction a zero-sum game in which one man's happiness necessitates another man's suffering? These are questions which frame my future professional pursuits, and therefore an analytical look at existing critical thought on this topic is of great interest to me.  

While I am by no means an expert in economics, wealth distribution, or life satisfaction, my education has provided me with a basic literacy to understand and synthesize useful information. I hope to focus my passion about these topics into productive critical thought. I am an optimist and so my posts will often take a positive viewpoint when possible. Despite this caveat, I am not afraid of conceding to harsh conclusions given proper justification. The value of this blog will not be derived from my personal expertise, but rather from my open-minded approach to a topic of genuine interest to me.  

I developed a cursory framework for my future posts which I hope will give you an idea of whether or not you are interested in the direction of this blog. First, I would like to look at inequality and resource distribution from an evolutionary perspective. The history of life on earth has been a constant competition for limited resources and a refinement processing rewarding the best survivors with the ultimate prize of continued existence. By addressing the origins of resource competition, I hope to highlight our inherent desire to accumulate, sometimes beyond logic.  

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Later on, I will discuss some of the measures of inequality and how different countries stack up against each other (now and in the past). Next, I will highlight some of the political systems which attempt to address the issue of wealth distribution. I plan to continue on by looking at how different religious theologies address inequality and the ethical backing they give to particular responses to privilege. I would then like to see how levels of inequality affect health and life satisfaction in different countries. By doing this, I hope to close in on whether or not minimizing inequality is important for raising overall life satisfaction.  

Finally I would like to write about different social movements like the Occupy movement or the Basic Income Guarantee concept of redistributing wealth by giving every citizen a check to cover basic life needs. I believe understanding these ideas provides perspective on what possible steps forward may be. Furthermore, I hope to forecast whether or not the world is prepared to make changes for the goodness of all.  

By the end of it all, I hope that both my readers and I have a more informed opinion on whether or not life is a zero-sum game or rising waters raise all ships. I'm hoping for the latter! 

Profile:

Getting a group of academics in the same room together can be incredibly difficult. With busy class schedules, research, and personal lives, it is rare that individuals with common interests have free time to meet up for collaboration and exchange of ideas. While this fact holds for professors who are at the top of their field, it is especially true for young researchers who are just beginning to make a name for themselves. Luckily the internet provides a forum for discussion and opportunity for collaboration which doesn’t require a major sacrifice in time committed to other aspects of life. The ability to simply log-in and connect with a discussion sustained by a collection of like-minded colleagues is an incredible phenomenon that benefits not only those participating in the discussion, but interested observers as well.

The blog, “Inequalities: Research and reflectionfrom both sides of the Atlantic,” was started in September 2010 by a group of young academic researchers who met at a ‘Social Change: a Harvard-Manchester Initiative’ (SCHMI) workshop in Crewe, England. Their decision to continue working together after the conference had ended took the form of a collaborative blog. The fields covered by the collective range between sociology, political science, geography, demography, social policy, and economics. They come from “universities on both sides of the Atlantic,” and aim to provide:

"… a space to critically discuss research on inequality, both our own research and the most interesting research we come across; and… a community of people who want to try and tackle the injustices they see in the world by shedding light on things that would otherwise be invisible."

I am really excited to share this blog, and I think that the posts will be relevant to all readers who have taken interest in my writing so far. While the broad base of posters limits the continuity of the blog as a whole, I welcome the variety as refreshing. I often get caught on a single track or mindset when it comes to inequality, and reading informed posts from different points of view serves as a great reminder of the number of factors which impact this topic.

I’ll share a couple of my favorite posts to set you off in the right direction and give you an idea of what to expect from “Inequalities.” A post questioning the purpose of elite universities brings to light some interesting questions about the goal of higher education. The author draws an analogy between elite universities and the preparations of a country’s Olympic program. He highlights how, similar to an Olympic training program, our elite universities pick out the best and brightest and cultivate them to be the very best in the world. To go along with the idea of competing countries, each country’s universities may exist only to produce the best intellects who will compete intellectually with the innovators of other countries. I appreciate the efforts the post makes to look at the how the composition of existing institutions may unintentionally contribute to inequality. The post provides a unique sociological perspective to a topic which is most often seen through an economic lens.

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Another post I wanted to highlight pulls some interesting points out of a book called, “Doormen,” by Peter Bearmen. The book details how a close look at the seemingly minor details surrounding the job of a doorman reveal interesting aspects about social status and function. The post provides a succinct summary and guides readers of shorter blog-based material to more in-depth and thorough reading by highlighting relevant literature.

While this blog is not going to be your front page for the latest in inequality, it can provided thoughtful and insightful reading for whenever you want to check-in for an update. I really enjoy learning from those who are in the trenches at universities, doing the research necessary to push for evidence-based reform. While there may be some overlap in the content posted on my blog, I think that “Inequalities” is likely to take a more diverse and original approach, whereas my blog largely serves as a place for synthesis of existing material that is on the web. It appears others have found their blog to be useful as well; according to majesticseo.com, the blog has accumulated more than 100,000 backlinks in the last 5 years.

Although nothing will beat good old-fashioned in-person collaboration, one benefit of the transition in academic discourse to the web is that public documentation allows for amateurs to read and participate in a way that was previously not possible. It is important to take advantage. If you are an amateur, read and discuss the content produced by experts in your field of interest. And if you are one of those experts, share your knowledge with the rest of the world by engaging in online discourse. The “Inequalities” blog bridges the gap between amateur and academic, and serves as a testament to the power of online collaboration.

Voice:

One of my favorite bloggers, Karl Widerquist, writes in association with the United States Basic Income Guarantee website. His credentials are substantial: A Ph. D. in Political Theory from Oxford University and a Ph. D. in Economics from the City University in New York. Dr. Widerquist’s blog is a space where he partially steps away from the formal writing found in his books and journal entries, and writes freely about a topic he is passionate about.

I take personal interest in analyzing the voice that Karl uses in his posts. To me he represents the rational yet passionate expression that I would like to have come across in my own writing. On the whole, I feel convinced and moved by Karl’s writing because he appeals to logic in an engaging way.

In a post titled, “Conservative website finds USBIGbehind vast government conspiracy,” Widerquist employs a number of techniques which epitomize the effectiveness of his voice. One of his favorite techniques is the use of parenthesis to provide qualification to statements.

“Although this is the first time (I know of) that the USBIG website has caught the attention of conspiracy theorists, it is not the first time that BIG has caught their attention.”

Here Widerquist moderates his statement by acknowledging his potential inaccuracy rather than making his statement unequivocal. Often times the parenthesis allow him to make a broad and strong statement that is quickly tempered by an aside in parenthesis. While this weakens the strength of his arguments on the whole, he gains credibility by not overstepping what is rationally justified.

Another technique he uses is a repeated simple sentence structure to display passion in an escalating argument.

“Over the last 30 years or more, the U.S. welfare system has been slowly but consistently         dismantled. The minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation. Individuals’ rights to organize unions have been reduced. Taxes on the wealthy have fallen while government favors for the wealthy have increased.”

To me, this repeated sentence structure connotes an individual speaking to a crowd, getting louder and more expressive, ushering the audience along to the peak of her argument. A lot of very important information is contained in these short sentences. If each point were elaborated upon by Karl, he would run the risk of his readers losing sight of his overarching point. Instead he lists them off, rapidly and with confidence, maintaining the readers focus and steadily building to the overall point.

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In another of Karl’s posts titled, “What does theStone Age have to do with us?” he uses rhetorical questions on multiple occasions to further his own argument while encouraging the reader to think for themselves about the topic in question. Readers frequently bring entrenched viewpoints to an article. To get them to even consider an alternative point of view, one must first get them to question the certainty of their original belief.

In Winderquist’s article, he wants his readers to rethink what appears to be a rather obvious statement that modern man is better off than our hunter-gatherer ancestors. He creates room for discussion on the topic through rhetorical questions:

“How do we know that property began as private property? Are we sure that every single modern worker is better off than our hunter-gatherer ancestors?”

Rather than immediately making a statement in conflict with a reader’s intuition, he eases into his argument by simply raising a question. This voice technique reduces the abrasiveness of topics that are not predisposed to be well-received by their audience.

Although I don’t agree with all of the arguments Winderquist makes in his blog, I have immense respect for the voice he uses in his writing. I hope to incorporate a number of his techniques into my own writing. I am passionate about a number of divisive issues which require rational and informed arguments, but also need to keep readers engaged. Finding a balance between evidence-based argumentation and gripping prose requires practice and guidance. For me, Karl Winderquist offers an effective style I hope to emulate in my future writing.