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 have created an illusion of normalcy which conceals 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.  

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 understanding the field of global health and acquiring the tools I believe to be necessary for impact. I am 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 human suffering is intrinsic to human existence. Incredible economic growth over the past century has drastically improved standards of living though out the world. Innovations in health and technology have completely shifted the outlook for the future of mankind. Nevertheless, 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 slow down human 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 the topic 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 have developed a cursory framework for my future posts and will present it now in order to preview for my readers what they are in for if they choose to continue reading. 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 with the ultimate prize of continued existence. By addressing the origins of resource competition, I hope to partially justify our inherent desire to accumulate, sometimes beyond logic.  

Then I will discuss some of the measures of inequality and how different countries stack up and now and in the past. Next, I will highlight some of the political systems which attempt to address the issue of wealth distribution, both current and historical. I want to continue on by looking at how different theologies address inequality and the ethical backing they give to particular responses to privilege. I would then like to see how levels on inequality affecting health and life satisfaction in different countries. By down this I hope to key into 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 to radically redistributing wealth. I believe understanding these ideas helps to understand what possible steps forward may be, and whether the world is prepared to make what may be necessary changes for the goodness of all.  

By the end of it all, I hope that both myself and my readers have a more informed opinion on whether life is a zero-sum game or whether rising waters raise all ships. I'm hoping for the latter!