Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with inequality

How can I justify having luxuries while others lack necessities?

espertus — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:05:02 -0800

How can I morally justify spending money on luxuries while others lack necessities? Many reputable charities offer ways to save or vastly improve the lives of people in extreme poverty for small donations. What type of person am I if I spend $10 on a movie ticket, for example, that could be spent on mosquito netting to protect a poor child from malaria or to vaccinate dozens of children against measles? I don't see how giving a fixed percentage of my income, such as tithing, absolves me of further moral responsibility.

Wanted: a stats Gini-us

godawful — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:34:41 -0800

It ought to be possible (though I know it's going to be inaccurate) to estimate the number of people earning above a certain level using a given country's GDP and Gini Coefficient. Can you help me work through the details? I know Gini tells us less than everything about the actual shape of the distribution of income, but assuming the simplest, smooth curve, shouldn't some sort of guesstimate possible?

The final datapoint that I want for each country is the proportion of people earning above $100,000 in any given country (which I'll then multiply by population).

How would you actually do it, using Excel or whatever?

For context, this is feeding into a rough analysis of the market for a certain premium good in various countries.

Gini Coefficients around the world are listed here.

Thanks in advance!

PS. This is most certainly not a homework question, but a rather pressing business matter. My head's on the block.

Is "=!" ever legal?

caek — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 11:02:12 -0800

Is there any programming language in which "=!" is a (or even the) correct way of testing for inequality? All the languages I know test for inequality using "!=" or something completely unrelated.

Percentage of GDP currently and historically spent on luxuries?

shivohum — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:46:42 -0800

Are there any statistics on what portion of the US GDP is now and historically (over the past 100 or 200 years) has been spent on luxury goods? I'll refrain from defining that term and hope that any studies referenced will do the work for me. Any international comparisons would be greatly appreciated as well.

"What do you mean poor people aren't lazy?"

mariokrat — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 13:41:33 -0800

Point me toward some interesting statistics, graphics, videos, or other materials about the causes and extent of social inequality in the world or in the US. I'm teaching a class on the social dimensions of technology, and the idea that the roots of social inequality might be structural rather than individual is turning out to be very difficult for the students to get. They seem to hear things I say, but the idea that anyone who is sufficiently motivated will be successful, and that lack of success is a personal failing is very entrenched. I've found things like the quiz here and this page but are there any others that people have used with success?

Love and Sex

ludwig_van — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 11:15:16 -0800

My girlfriend and I are in college and we've been together for almost a year. I know that she loves me, and we have a good relationship, but I'm not as attracted to her as she is to me. What should I do? I thought at first that I was being too picky, and beggars can't be choosers, and besides, she seemed like a great girl who really cares about me. Well, she is a great girl who really cares about me, but I'm still not that interested in sex with her. I've come to appreciate her more over the course of our relationship, but I still feel like I never had that spark for her, whereas she does for me, and I feel pretty bad about that. She isn't unattractive, either; it's just that my brain still seems to parse her features more as "friend" than "lover." I'm very comfortable being physical with her, but I just don't feel that strong a desire, and I often find myself thinking about other girls. She seems happy with our relationship, but she occasionally hints that she wishes I were more enthusiastic sexually.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? I'm worried that I'm being too superficial and that I won't be able to find someone else with whom I have so much in common and who will love me as much, that I'd be throwing away a perfectly good relationship, etc. She's very attached to me, and I care about her a lot, so I really don't want to hurt her. However, I feel guilty about the inequality of desire in our relationship, like I'm being dishonest to myself and to her. Any advice would be appreciated.