Forum Post: The hard data.
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 29, 2011, 4:17 p.m. EST by TheIndependentCentrist
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The TED conferences are a spectacular initiative to spread knowledge and ideas in a free, open forum. Surprisingly often spectacular talks and lectures are given. These are often ideas that are suppressed and ignored by the media, or dismissed as opinionated and irrelevant.
In October the TED conference released a spectacular lecture by Richard Wilkinson on economic inequality. Wilkinson presents data gathered by reputable sources, such as the UN and even our own federal government.
Wilkinson's lecture is based on the different factors influenced by societal, and more specifically, income inequality. It is obvious by a single glance at the data points that income inequality is a source of some of the major societal problems. Sadly the USA tops almost every list.
I remember seeing some data that put America's income inequality on par with several African nations. What people don't realize is that for decades now America has had more of a crony-capitalism that is becoming a kind of neo-fuedalism. If we want our children to be disenfranchised "landless" peasants let's just leave things as they are. What we need to do is end the cycle of legalized bribery (campaign donations) and paid lobbyists and return to real-capitalism where the companies that best serve the American people grow and the rest go under. This starts with real, loop-hole free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!!!
+1 For that
Hopefully some of our detractors will take the time to watch.
I really love the TED conferences. Many of the ideas shared at these conferences are nothing short of incredible, yet little is being done by governments to implement these ideas.