Eomund said: Also Copycon, what is wrong with people having more money? There is no solution to the poor having more kids. The only thing we can do about it is educate the kids and hope they climb out of the hole they were born into. |
Well, it depends from society to society. And I believe that the US - because of its deeply rooted individualistic liberalism - is less inclined to get social disasters from smaller levels of inequality than isolated villages in south east asia or africa. Still, a higher gini-coefficient generally leads to more unsafe societies. It is not the basic needs that is the problem in a developed economy, it is material and social inequality.
http://www.answers.com/topic/relative-deprivation
Edit: I'll add a quote from the loathed evil Karl Marx. Its from the link I posted above and it sums up it all pretty good.
"A house may be large or small; as long as the neighboring houses are likewise small, it satisfies all social requirement for a residence. But let there arise next to the little house a palace, and the little house shrinks to a hut. The little house now makes it clear that its inmate has no social position at all to maintain, or but a very insignificant one; and however high it may shoot up in the course of civilization, if the neighboring palace rises in equal of even in greater measure, the occupant of the relatively little house will always find himself more uncomfortable, more dissatisfied, more cramped within his four walls."
Beware, I live!
I am Sinistar!
Beware, coward!
I hunger!
Roaaaaaaaaaar!
