Why Aren’t More Famous Established People Talking About Income Inequality?

The wealthy and well-to-do, especially those who very publicly believe in science, have been surprisingly quiet about income inequality and the devastating effects lack of money has on the standard of living of the majority of Americans, at this very moment.

It is not that those well-off science believers don’t know the facts and statistics, but somehow they have continued to focus their social endeavors WITHOUT addressing the elephant in the room!

All social problems will be significantly improved had the gap between the richest and the majority of Americans not been so wide.

Let’s talk about the intersectionality between income inequality and feminism, living gracefully, innovation, climate change, obesity, health, education, kindness to others, terrorism, security, crime, criminal justice.

The sad truth is that it is easy to be fit, healthy, loving and graceful when you are rich, try doing that on an empty stomach or with little or nothing in your bank account.

I have always liked intellectual discussions, but at a recent summit with a lot of intelligent people, it acured to me that the scientific well-off don’t talk about income inequality because it makes them insecure about their privileged status and to a great extent they are afraid of undermining their privileged status. Therefore all these intellectual gatherings are very sensitive to anyone bringing up the topic of income inequality. But I try to effectively start introducing it in such discussions by bringing up Bernie Sanders and challenging them on what’s not to like about his political priorities, where addressing income inequality is the backbone of his social priorities.

The answers I get nowadays from the well-off to the Bernie Sanders social justice agenda based on increasing the real income of majority of Americans, are somewhat, what I imagine slave owners would have said to me in the past if I tried to convince them why letting their slaves be free is the moral thing to do. Back to the progressive income inequality agenda of Bernie Sanders, these well-off people now tell me “Yes, I agree to some extent with you, but (some version of — it is hard to let go of this convenience for us.)” But we want to do good, let’s just look for other good causes for us, we are just not comfortable talking about income inequality.

Just because an issue is difficult or complex it does not mean that our rich “intellectuals" should avoid it for fear of losing their own comfort in society. Because truly that worry is not rational. America has enough food and money to take care of everyone, really, that is not wishful thinking, that is a statistical fact.

Once the wealthy give that fact more thought, perhaps we can all together let go of our fears of not having our basic needs met, and start talking how do we organize society in a way that prioritizes quality of life of each human and utilizes humanity’s brain power with self-actualization and innovation, rather than wasteful worries and struggles about mere survival, which given the total of our resources should not be an issue in this day and age.