Comments on: health, wealth and $inequality$ in the land of opportunity http://www.amyleblanc.com/2008/09/inequality-in-the-land-of-opportunity "The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving." Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:48:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Dave Clooney http://www.amyleblanc.com/2008/09/inequality-in-the-land-of-opportunity#comment-22715 Dave Clooney Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:52:17 +0000 http://www.amyleblanc.com/?p=2739#comment-22715 I definitely appreciate your discussion of what the American Dream constitutes and how it relates to burning man this year. The last couple of weeks were undoubtedly stressful for you. Sorry about that. This point really struck me - "and thus, when the acceptable ways of gaining wealth are not accessible to them (for various innumerable reasons) - education and employment - they resort to the other ways to get rich: selling drugs and stealing." You might already know, but this is described by strain theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strain_theory_(sociology), which is described in some detail in Messner and Rosenfeld's book, appropriately named _Crime and the American Dream_. I can mail you a copy if you like. Also, I'm glad that your camp in the desert had someone in it who was focused on responsiblity, namely yourself. More of a sense of responsibility improves the event. At any rate, good luck dealing with your local situation. Economic inequality is a hard problem to fix, but is worth working on. -dc I definitely appreciate your discussion of what the American Dream constitutes and how it relates to burning man this year. The last couple of weeks were undoubtedly stressful for you. Sorry about that.

This point really struck me -
“and thus, when the acceptable ways of gaining wealth are not accessible to them (for various innumerable reasons) – education and employment – they resort to the other ways to get rich: selling drugs and stealing.”

You might already know, but this is described by strain theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.....(sociology), which is described in some detail in Messner and Rosenfeld’s book, appropriately named _Crime and the American Dream_. I can mail you a copy if you like.

Also, I’m glad that your camp in the desert had someone in it who was focused on responsiblity, namely yourself. More of a sense of responsibility improves the event.

At any rate, good luck dealing with your local situation. Economic inequality is a hard problem to fix, but is worth working on.

-dc

]]> By: Ken http://www.amyleblanc.com/2008/09/inequality-in-the-land-of-opportunity#comment-22257 Ken Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:54:55 +0000 http://www.amyleblanc.com/?p=2739#comment-22257 I'm one of the lucky few who is, arguably and just barely, better off now than I was at the start of the Bush administration. And I feel the rage. It's so hard to watch the narrow policies intended to favor a few friendly special interest groups, while most Americans look away and rush over the cliff like so many lemmings. I can only imagine the deep-seated anger inside those who have few options, those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. It sucks that some of those people are terrorizing your neighborhood. It sucks even more that in such a wealthy nation, those in power have let this happen. I’m one of the lucky few who is, arguably and just barely, better off now than I was at the start of the Bush administration. And I feel the rage. It’s so hard to watch the narrow policies intended to favor a few friendly special interest groups, while most Americans look away and rush over the cliff like so many lemmings. I can only imagine the deep-seated anger inside those who have few options, those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

It sucks that some of those people are terrorizing your neighborhood. It sucks even more that in such a wealthy nation, those in power have let this happen.

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