WEALTH INEQUALITY

Sometimes a long explanation of a topic is unnecessary.  Adequate documentation of the issue already exists.  It is only necessary to organize it into a review document.

Forbes documents the expansion of the income inequality during the pandemic, as "operation warp speed":  https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2021/04/06/operation-wealth-speed-what-a-record-number-of-new-self-made-billionaires-says-about-capitalism/

How is it possible that during a period of economic contraction, executive compensation increased?  Don't the boards of for profit companies read the newspapers? https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/inequality-has-soared-during-the-pandemic-and-so-has-ceo-compensation    

And by the way, the stimulus during the pandemic was mostly absorbed by large banks. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/wall-streets-pandemic-bonanza

Even the in-between middle classes have done worse overall: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22673605/upper-middle-class-meritocracy-matthew-stewart

We are talking about billionaires now.  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/magazine/billionaires.html

And this is not just about buying big houses or yachts.  Very rich people think they should tell everyone else what to do and buy up control of things.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/opinion/tax-elon-musk-billionaire.html 

Is Thiel a stimulus or a destructive element? https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/books/review/the-contrarian-peter-thiel-max-chafkin.html

And it matters how the money was made. The Sacklers accelerated a vast expansion of addiction in the US. And personally walked away with little penalty:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/11/opinion/purdue-sacklers-opioids-oxycontin-settlement.html

Politicians depend too much on the very rich for campaign financing:  https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-not-to-tax-billionaires

And the very wealthy have arranged the rules to benefit them: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

This is not just about the US,  though it shows that the determination of Britain to stay British is an illusion: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/28/how-putins-oligarchs-bought-london

Perhaps the most toxic feature is the way in which money is being made by not rebuilding the infrastructure,  not improving schools,  and making crippling interest off students.  The rich are getting richer by damaging the future of both the material world,  and our children: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/opinion/school-debt-economy.html

What to do about this?  Should we create sanctions on the wealthy in the US, the way they  are (supposed to be) sanctioned in Russia due to the Ukraine invasion? https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/turning-the-focus-on-americas-oligarchs

Politically that will never happen.  The Trump presidency showed the inability of the current political system to challenge the status quo.  The extreme Right protestors and the Black Lives Matter protestors share a common problem: they are getting sucked dry by the system.  Fighting each other keeps both sides from looking at the economic issue.

Is the answer just to have better Facebook contact between rich and poor? https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/01/upshot/rich-poor-friendships.html

This seems a truly naive and limited answer.

Should we create a large group of organizations to address the needs of the poor and homeless?  Who will decide how the money is spent? https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/03/nyregion/jack-brown-homeless-nyc-core-services.html

Can the solution come by legal actions against those exploiting others for housing? https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/a-promising-court-victory-for-mobile-home-residents

Pikety tells the interviewer that the US is "primed" for redistribution of wealth.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview.html

But how will this happen?

OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FUTURE

 I have been posting on the environment and climate change on my Facebook site(Ron Milestone) almost daily for the last year. Although the day to day posts cover a range of topics, the basic issues are not complicated or confusing (though they may be difficult to solve!).
1) How do we rein in the use of fossil fuels and other carbon production to slow the climate changes already occurring? How do we do this without totally disrupting the economic balance of separate countries?  The relationship of humans to energy use is a vital concern.  A defined amount of energy arrives at the earth each day as sunlight.  This is converted into various phenomena and may be converted to other forms (solar power, wind turbines).  Residual heat from processes within the earth provides an additional source of energy.  And plants have stored energy in their structures over eons, and continue to do so.  Energy is stored in every molecule and methods of releasing this have been developed (nuclear) but their safety has historically been poorly engineered.  Energy is needed for daily activities and for transportation from place to place.  It is easier to use alternative energy sources converted to electricity for daily activities, and more difficult to use them for transportation.   The reserve of fossil fuels is depleting.  A decision must be made to slow their use and preserve their availability to make the transition to future power needs less drastic.
2) How do we adjust to the climate changes occurring and likely to continue in this century without catastrophic political events? This includes managing the changing distribution of water, intensification of weather events, fires, and the relation of people to the events.  Climate change is already underway.  How rapidly it will occur, and all of its ramifications are not understood.  Some of the effects are clear already.  Major political decisions will be needed to adjust to these changes.  Wars in regions of Africa and the middle east indicate the consequences for failure to make peaceful decisions.
3) How do we reduce the distribution of toxic polluting substances, and clear ones already distributed, to avoid human and animal damage? This includes ending the use of the oceans as toilets.  The manufacture of new materials and electronic devices is associated with the creation of pollution not cycled back to natural substances rapidly.  A similar issue occurs in nuclear production of energy.  The only solution to this problem is the reduction of use of these substances.  This goes in the face of the economic evolution of human consumption and will be difficult to accomplish!
4) How do we balance the distribution of humans to other plant and animal species to retain suitable biological diversity? This must involve changes in human demography, and changes in how humans exploit other species.  Every place where humans sequester land to grow crops  or animals for human consumption creates an opportunity for wild animals to exploit this food supply.  This interferes with human food production, and diverts animals from "natural" food source activities.  Opportunistic animal species also invade human cities and dwellings creating unintended "shared spaces".  THERE IS NO WAY TO COMPLETELY ISOLATE HUMANS AND OTHER SPECIES.  A constant attention to the ecology of sharing is needed,  along with creating "natural spaces" that retain animal species away from human concerns.  This is a decision about use of land, which also involves major economic and political considerations.
Solving these problems without creating chaos requires careful decisions about choices and balancing different goals. The current political process in the US is not capable of this level of careful decision making. Perhaps more mature countries will lead the process.

THE MEANING OF "FAILURE TO LAUNCH"

The term "failure to launch" (in humans) is applied to young adults who do not successfully enter roles in society.  There is an article describing this "syndrome" in Scientific American (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/failure-to-launch-syndrome/).  And a study has been initiated at Yale department of Psychiatry, enrolling "patients" to evaluate interventions. (https://www.spacetreatment.net/forum-1/professional-forum/new-failure-to-launch-treatment-study-at-yale-child-study-center     https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5504878/).  Parent training has been recommended (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36047938/).  ( https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/991190?ecd=mkm_ret_230506_mscpmrk_psych_anxiety&uac=75012BG&impID=5403082#vp_1) And there is a special outdoor program for men (https://fortestrong.com/landing/?gad=1).  

This is not entirely an AMERICAN phenomenon.  The Japanese "lost generation" refers to young men who could not enter the employment cycle during the downturn of Japan's economy in the mid 90s-2000's.  They often retreated to their rooms and were eventually described as the Hikikomori (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori).  They have a serious impact on the pension system of elderly in Japan.   Similar trends are observed in the EU,  and these issues occur despite the changing demographic profile which is producing fewer young persons, while expanding the elderly survival.  

Nor is it an entirely NEW phenomenon.  Kenneth Keniston wrote about it in THE UNCOMMITTED: ALIENATED YOUTH IN AMERICAN SOCIETY.  Entering society is the last "aspect" of adolescent development  usually through entry into employment.  (The adolescent developmental stage includes five transitions that impact social adaptation: The physiologic changes of adolescence combine rapid somatic growth with the changes of puberty associated with a general increase in emotional intensity. The cognitive changes associated with abstract thinking. Personal gender identity is different from physical puberty and builds on childhood experiences of sexual identification, normal and abusive childhood sexuality, and other pre-adolescent issues. Social development is the transition from dependence on family for emotional and physical support of childhood to using the peer group in adolescence. Adolescents may have difficulty separating from the family and ambivalent autonomy. Social identity is the task of becoming a productive member of society.  SEE NEUROMIND: A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH TO MENTAL HEALTH Ch 6) Interfering with the development of one's role in the larger society can result from many different processes.  Severe physical incapacity,  cognitive disability, head trauma, emotional trauma/PTSD, and mental health disturbances may all result in failure to achieve family autonomy.  But none of these factors explain the sudden increase in the number of failures, either in Japan or the US.

It is only possible to understand and address the "failure to launch" when considering it as an indication of social and economic problems that impact the individual.  Two specific features must be considered in the US: 1) The role of youth in American society in the last twenty plus years is primarily the role of consumer.  All media, social and non-social aimed at American youth are designed to direct the motivation to be consumers.  The goal to enhance the desire to acquire goods and services that stimulate the economy does not emphasize the skills needed to be productive.  Even traditional roles like athletic success have been transformed into their importance for economic impact.  and  2) The failure to enhance the funding and development of the education for productive skills.  All the evidence suggests that public education is declining in its ability to produce students with effective skills needed in the general society.  This is due in part to the disappearance of training in non-academic skills in high schools, etc.  and also the declining quality of learning primary skills (the 3 Rs).  It is also a consequence of the failure to develop teachers and curricula for the new digital skills needed in modern society.  Everyone, liberal and conservative, agrees on these changes,  but they do not agree on the solutions, and so none have occurred.  Instead  conflicts about social values and the historical accuracy of information distracts the energy from teaching productivity.

At the same time that the education process has been less successful in preparing students for work skills,  several changes in the work environment have made entry less desirable or more difficult.  Companies frequently complain about the lack of commitment of young workers and their self centered expectations.  But no consideration is made of the companies' failure to assure lifelong employment to workers.  Why should young workers be committed to companies that are not committed to them?  The lucky ones take entry jobs and then "climb the ladder" of opportunities across companies who hire workers away from other companies to avoid the costs of training.  The unlucky ones do not find good entry opportunities, and become quickly disillusioned.  Complicating this is the failure of contemporary education to train students in the digital technical skills needed to perform the basic operations of modern corporations efficiently.  Most older teachers do not have these skills.  Most older leaders in corporations do not have these skills.  The ability to advance in tech companies depends on highly specialized skills.  The desire to enter or advance in less appealing and poorer compensating jobs has little motivation for young people who see the social emphasis on technology and the digital world.  Making "failure to launch" a mental health issue leads to suitable outcomes in selected persons,  but makes the individuals the problem in all cases,  without addressing the social factors.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ADDRESS THE VARIOUS ISSUES IN FAILURE TO LAUNCH WITHOUT INCORPORATING THE ROLE OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL REWARD IN THE CONSIDERATION.