“Injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
World Day of Social Justice is tomorrow, the perfect time to reflect on the blessings we all have and the opportunities available for us to continue to positively impact the world around us. Remember, the question GlobeMed is asking everyone to ponder is, “What do all people deserve?”
As you reflect on that prompt, I invite you to read this brutally honest critique of the American Dream by Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics. He denounces the idea that the United States is the Land of Equal Opportunity as a complete myth in our modern era. Despite the advancements we’ve made in racial and gender equality, there are still noticeable differences in socio-economic status between white and non-whites, especially blacks and Latinos, and between men and women. And perhaps even more egregious, there is as little social mobility as there’s ever been in the history of this country, and is lower than in most of the other developed nations around the world. While racial and gender inequality decreased from the 1980s onward, economic inequalities increased.
Stiglitz’s op-ed calls for a dramatic overhaul of our education system, especially with regards to how much funding public institutions receive. Take a look at this quote:
“Unless current trends in education are reversed, the situation is likely to get even worse. In some cases it seems as if policy has actually been designed to reduce opportunity: government support for many state schools has been steadily gutted over the last few decades — and especially in the last few years. … Young people from families of modest means face a Catch-22: without a college education, they are condemned to a life of poor prospects; with a college education, they may be condemned to a lifetime of living at the brink. And increasingly even a college degree isn’t enough; one needs either a graduate degree or a series of (often unpaid) internships. Those at the top have the connections and social capital to get those opportunities. Those in the middle and bottom don’t. The point is that no one makes it on his or her own.”
As Stiglitz says, the point really is, “No one makes it on his or her own.”
America is a country founded by people with individualistic tendencies, traits that allowed people to excel at entrepreneurial enterprises and boldly go forth seeking their own prosperity and happiness. The history of the United States is filled with fantastic tales of people coming to this country building up their own business, working hard to support their family and themselves, and becoming successful. These are inspiring stories that touch upon some of the best qualities of Americans throughout history: hard-working and dedicated, innovative and creative, bold and resilient.
But we live in a changing environment, where it simply is not possible to do what the pioneers did decades ago when they boldly set forth towards the West in search of land and freedom. The world is more interconnected and intertwined than ever before, and as a result people are more connected and engaged in something beyond themselves than ever before. This is not to say that entrepreneurial opportunities are not available anymore; on the contrary in fact. But it simply isn’t possible to do it purely by yourself anymore (it can be argued that it never really was possible, but that is more true today than ever before). American individualism made our country prosperous, but it is threatening to divide our country into those who have the freedom of opportunity, and those that simply do not.
So if we are really to address this issue of social and economic inequality that continues to plague this country, if we are to really change the way things are and give people more opportunities, if we are really to work towards upholding the creed that America is the Land of Equal Opportunity, we need to have an honest and open discussion about this issue of American individualism, why it exists, what allows it to continue, and what sort of things we can do to try and tone it down.
I recently finished reading a particularly engaging book entitled Outliers by journalist Malcolm Gladwell, who argues simply that in evaluating human potential we typically spend too much time focused on the individual in question, when we really should be looking at the forces surrounding the individual, such as where and when they grew up, what sort of household environment they were raised in, and the culture they were exposed to from an early age on. Gladwell draws attention once again to the simple fact that, “no one makes it on his or her own.” While Gladwell focuses on why certain people have become successful in our modern era, why not flip the equation upside down and look at how we can broaden the number of opportunities for people to become successful. Use what Gladwell’s research tells us, that cultural forces play a much bigger role than normally assumed in helping to determine who succeeds and who falls short, to devise a strategy to level the playing field, to allow more people to have the opportunity to be successful and move up the economic ladder into prosperity. Devise a strategy to create more outliers, rather than continue to stifle the few chances that limit most Americans already.
So while tomorrow we’ll reflect on social justice issues around the world, today why not stop and think about the social justice issues facing our country today, and what we can do about it.
For another great op-ed article about inequality in America, check out NY Times columnist Paul Krugman’s latest on minimum wage
And as always, please support GlobeMed at Northwestern by donating to our Global Giving site, or checking out some of the awesome things for sale at our Web Thrift Store!