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Income inequality in America has been growing rapidly, and is expected to increase [PDF]. While the widening wealth gap is a hot topic in the media and on the campaign trail, there's quite a disconnect between the perceptions of economists and those of the general public.
For instance, surveys show people tend to underestimate the income disparity between the top and bottom 20% of Americans, and overestimate the opportunity for poor individuals to climb the social ladder. Additionally, a majority of adults believe that corporations conduct business fairly despite evidence to the contrary and that the government should not act to reduce income inequality.
Even though inequality is increasing, Americans seem to believe that our social and economic systems work exactly as they should. This perspective has intrigued social scientists for decades. My colleague Andrei Cimpian and I have demonstrated in our recent research that these beliefs that our society is fair and just may take root in the first years of life, stemming from our fundamental desire to explain the world around us.
http://theconversation.com/lifes-not-fair-so-why-do-we-assume-it-is-45981
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10 2015, @11:00PM
Lots of people are in situations that are objectively bad
You lost me. There is no "objectively bad". A grand majority of people can find X bad, but you can't conclude from that that X is objectively bad.
Saying that individuals cannot change bad behaviors is objectively wrong
It's not about whether individuals can change behaviors; it's about whether enough individuals can change their behaviors and affect society to such a degree that we can prevent the so-called atrocities that humans have caused time and time again throughout history. So far, it doesn't seem probable, so you're on the losing side when you say it's "objectively wrong", unless you're responding to someone who claims it's absolutely impossible rather than just improbable. I maintain that it's merely improbable, and there is an overwhelming amount of historical evidence that demonstrates that.
So I was thinking about large-scale effects.