We're number 1(00)!!

According to the CIA, we're the 41st most unequal country in the world. The Gini index measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income in a country. The more nearly equal a country's income distribution, the lower its Gini index, e.g., a Scandinavian country with an index of 25. The more unequal a country's income distribution, the higher its Gini index, e.g., a Sub-Saharan country with an index of 50. If income were distributed with perfect equality the index would be zero; if income were distributed with perfect inequality, the index would be 100.GINI

The Gini Index in the US is 45. We're less equal than the Philippines, Cameroon, Iran, Russia, and Nigeria (just to name a few).

Here's the world's ten most equal countries (the lower the Gini Index number the better)

Rank Country Gini Index

131Finland 26.8

132Austria 26.3

133Slovakia 26.0

134Luxembourg 26.0

135Norway 25.0

136Czech Republic 24.9

137Denmark 24.8

138Hungary 24.7

139Montenegro 24.3

140Slovenia 23.7

141Sweden 23.0

Source CIA World Factbook

And here's the world's least equal countries

Rank Country Gini Index

1Lesotho63.2

2South Africa 63.1

3Botswana 63.0

4Sierra Leone 62.9

5Central African Republic 61.3

6Namibia 59.7

7Haiti 59.2

8Honduras 57.7

9Zambia 57.5

10Colombia 55.9

Here's the US

41United States 45.0

OUCH!

Here's a couple of questions I'll ask my students:

Describe inequality in your life. Do you think it impacts your life?

Do you come out on the good side or the bad side of inequality? Is there a good side?

How would the US change if we were suddenly one of the most equal countries instead of one of the least equal?

What are some causes of inequality in the US? In the world?

What are some things the government could do about inequality? (why doesn't it do more?)

What are some things you could do about inequality? (why don't you do more?)

What are some consequences of American inequality?

According to the philosopher John Rawls, the best measure of a just society is whether you’d be willing to be thrown in at random. If you didn't know whether you would end up rich or poor, would you be willing to be thrown into the US randomly?

You won't believe this video. My students didn't! Here's a whole inequality lesson for you.

I'd love to hear your comments!

Inequality

I've been thinking a lot about inequality lately. I kept reading report after report on American inequality but it was hard to visualize the chasm between the rich and the poor. Then I saw a video on inequality that helped me make sense of it all. I wasn't even half way through the video when I knew I was going to share it with my students.

Here's a recipe I cooked up to help my students debrief from the video and think deeply about inequality.

Time

15 minutes preparation

45 minutes of class time

Ingredients

100 beans per group of 4

1 ruler per group of 4

1 piece of paper per group of 4

1 marker per group of 4

1 link to the great inequality video (6 minutes and 24 seconds)

Before

Get 100 dried beans, or a roll of 100 pennies, or, in a pinch, chop up a piece of paper into 100 little pieces. We’ll refer to these pieces, beans, or pennies as beans from now on.

Class

Individuals

Ask your students to write down the word wealth.

Ask them to write a definition of the word wealth.

Wealth = what you have minus what you owe

Wealth = your stuff - your debts

The median net wealth of Americans is now somewhere around $57,000.

Groups

Split your class up into groups of four or so.

Each group will need

100 beans.

1 ruler

1 piece of paper

1 marker

Each group will take a piece of paper and a ruler. Turn your paper long way and place your ruler flush with the left hand side of your paper. Mark a line at 2 inches that runs from the top to the bottom of the page. Mark another line at 4 inches, another line at 6 inches, another line at 8 inches and a final line at 10 inches. You’ve marked your paper, roughly into quintiles (fifths). If you imagine dividing the US into quintiles of wealth, the poorest quintile of Americans would be in the space between 0 and 2 inches. The richest quintile of Americans would be between 8 and 10 inches. You can cut the paper off or fold it back at the 10 inch line.

Think of the beans as the total wealth of the USA. Each bean equals one percent of the total wealth. The total wealth of the US is approximately $54 trillion (2008) and that means that each bean is worth approximately $540 billion which written out looks like this $540,000,000,000 (that’s five hundred and forty billion dollars).

How do you think wealth (beans) is distributed in the USA?

In other words, you would put 20 beans in each quintile if you think the wealth is distributed exactly evenly between quintiles.

Or, your would put all 100 beans on the top quintile if you think the richest quintile (fifth) of Americans have all the wealth.

Remember, these beans do not equal income. Income is how much money you make. We are talking about wealth - how much a person has accumulated in life.

Distribute the beans on your grid based on how you believe the beans are actually distributed in the USA today.

After you’ve distributed the beans on your grid talk about it as a class. Talk about why some people get more beans than others. Talk about what it takes to get beans and to not get beans. Think about justice, fairness, equality, history.

Write the words AS IS on a piece of paper, place it at the top of the grid, and take a picture of your USA grid.

Now, let’s try this again.

Think again of the beans as the total wealth of the USA. Each bean equals one percent of the total wealth.

This time, think about how you think wealth (beans) should be distributed in the USA? Not how it IS, but how it SHOULD BE in an ideal world. Now talk about it. Thinking again about questions of justice, fairness, equality. Write the word SHOULD BE on a piece of paper, place it at the top of the grid, and take a picture of it.

Discuss how different your second grid is from the first grid you made and why that is.

Watch the great inequality video (6 minutes and 24 seconds)

After you watch the video each student should write down the following.

1. Something new you learned in the video.

2. A statement about how fair the United States is.

3. A statement about what the government could do about the distribution of wealth in the US.

Discuss why the distribution of wealth is the way it is.

Discuss what the government could do about it.

Rearrange the beans on your chart to reflect how wealth is actually divided in the US. Write the word ACTUAL on a piece of paper, place it at the top of the grid, and take a picture of it.

Here’s a chart that summarizes the findings from the video

After

Do one of the following:

1. Send me your pictures of your grids and thoughts.

2. Write a one page letter to the editor about the video.

3. Make a one paragraph post responding to the video on You Tube.

4. Make a one minute video response to the video on You Tube.

5. Write a letter to a government official about the video.

6. Make a post on this blog about the class.

7. Write a song, rap, or poem about the distribution of wealth in America.

8. Make a video response to the the great inequality video

9. Use your beans to make a visual representation of the USA (this could be a flag, a symbol, a word).

10. Complete this analogy. America is to equality, as ______________ is to _______________ . Make art from your analogy.

Thanks!

Further study

Infographic on income inequality in the US

Here’s a 11 charts from Mother Jones on Inequality

TED Talk on how income inequality harms society

Inequality by the numbers