An economic vision geared solely toward profit and material well-being has led to an economy

of exclusion and inequality that has increased poverty. Pope Francis. Economic inequality, in

the simplest terms, is a wealth gap. Now, I can get technical and talk about the Gini Coefficient,

a number between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds with perfect equality (everyone makes the same

amount of money) and 1 corresponds with perfect inequality (one person makes all the money

and everyone else has nothing) or the 20:20 Ratio, compares how much richer the top 20% of

people are to the bottom 20%, but then this would be boring and this is not an Economics class.

So what is Pope Francis saying? Is there a way to reduce poverty and still have a great economic

vision? Can we close the wealth and wage gaps that are so prevalent in some countries like the

United States? Some people say yes and some people say no. The people that say yes believe that

we must spread the wealth to all and the people who say no believe that if you dont work hard

then you are undeserving. So who is right? Economic inequality, or poverty, affects everyone.

So, why should there be a right or a wrong? Why cant there just be a balance? A very famous

Greek philosopher named Aristotle theorized a desirable middle between two extremes, the

Golden Mean. Now, Aristotle and his other philosophy friends were focusing more on the

relationship between beauty and truth, but the general concept can be applied to practically

anything.

For the sake of time, and the requirement of a maximum of five pages, we will stick to the

United States economic inequality and if we could apply the theory of the Golden Mean. So

why no balance? Adam Smith, a very famous Scottish economist, philosopher and author once

said: The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to

despise, or at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is the great and most universal

cause of corruption of our moral sentiments. This is a very good description of what is going on
in the United States at this very moment. We are brought up to believe that the rich and powerful

is what our goal is to become as an adult. I can attest to this because my mother wanted me to

become a doctor, thinking they were all very wealthy. She thought that I would never have to

worry about paying my bills or having to take care of myself. I grew up very poor, and

understood the hardships, that as a family, we faced. Of course, being the black sheep of the

family, I first started out in the food industry then moved to become a dog groomer, neither

which you can become monetarily rich. Even though my mother constantly reminded us of how

we needed to become rich, I somehow escaped that way of thinking. Even though I did not

know who Adam Smith was or the Golden Mean or even what the heck economic inequality

was, I still couldnt ignore the poverty around me and how everything seem to be out of balance.

Sometimes when I would see a family struggling to pay their bill for dinner, or pay for their dog

grooming bill, I would chip in or even have been known to give my grooming services for gratis.

But why? Why would I help a family I dont know pay for their dinner or groom their dog for

free? Because, I know what it is to struggle. I am not saying that I helped everyone all the time

but when I could, I would. And I think that is what balance is all about. The first person you

should always take care of is yourself, because no one else is going to do it for you. But once you

have your basic needs met, why not help others in need? Ignoring the problem, aka the poor, will

not make it go away; just because you are not poor does not mean it will not affect you. We have

become a very individualist society. The mentality of just for me has been around for a very

long time and look where it has gotten us. I was listening to the radio a couple of weeks ago and

heard some ridiculous statistic of 44% of homeless people in America are employed. WTF?

Now, I am not sure how true or even if the number is correct but it is still mind boggling because

I know that is somewhat true. Then I started thinking. If you look at how much minimum wage
is, and compare it to housing, the cost of utilities, food and the other basic necessities of life, how

the hell can anyone make it? I can now understand how that 44% might be a bit true. If you

were to browse the internet, and look up the salaries of the CEOs of some of the top

corporations, you would be astounded. This again makes me believe that 44% to be even truer. If

you are making over $27 million dollars a year while your employees are receiving minimum

wage, and having to work 2 jobs just to be able to feed their family, wouldnt you want to re-

think your strategy? Of course not! Why would they worry about the poor people? Dont they

have jobs? You have helped enough by providing these people with a job. Here, again, we

seem the mentality of the individualist, like what Adam Smith was talking about, neglect

persons of poor and mean condition. Dont you think if the poverty level went down so would

crime? Everything in life has a trickle down affect, just like everything needs to be in somewhat

of a balance. Everyone needs to remember that balance does not mean neutrality. Balance has an

ebb and flow to it. Just like I was not able to help everyone, but I was still able to help a few.

And, a few is better than none at all. Just think, if everyone were to help just one person (and it

doesnt have to be monetarily), where would we be?

Be it the wealth gap, beauty and truth or the antibodies and bacteria in your body, balance is a

necessary part of life. But just like Libras scales, when there is a tip in balance it will cause a

domino effect, which can affect everyone, and not just you and your family, but your

community, your county and even the world. Al-Ghazali, known as Algazel in the Western

World, said it best: What is wanted is a balance between extravagance and miserliness through

moderation, with the goal of distance between both extremes.

 Psychology of Human Relations

Balance and the American Experience

Leena Oliver

Thursday, February 9, 2017