Primal Roots of Relative Deprivation?

Atlantic: Income Inequality Enrages Monkey

Many humans have highly developed senses of fairness and morality. Some monkeys may not be far behind. Watch as one gets cucumbers and the other gets delicious, delicious grapes.

[This is a 2013 version of the video to replace the removed 2012 version.]

The author says that income inequality tends to make us unhappy. That needs qualification. The degree of national inequality is not that relevant to personal happiness. People don't evaluate their personal lives in those terms. Inequality figures in when we talk about people in our immediate social networks, especially neighbors and family. As some have quipped, inequality is when my brother-in-law makes 10% more than I do.

Comments

[Scott]

Michael, at some point years ago I believe, you posted a study where people were shown graphical representations of income distributions and voted on which was the best. Most chose the one that looked the most equal over the one that was just as good or better for all except it also had some small percentage doing significantly better than the rest. I've tried to find that a number of times. If you could point it to me, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for all you do.

[Michael W. Kruse]

Hmmm ... This sounds familiar. Have you tried looking in the "Wealth and Income Distribution" category?

http://www.krusekronicle.com/kruse_kronicle/weatlh-and-income-distribution/

It has seven years of posts but this should narrow it some.

I'll see what I can find.

[Scott]

Thanks Michael. It took a while, but I found it using that category link: http://www.krusekronicle.com/kruse_kronicle/2008/04/do-people-care.html. You have put up a lot of interesting stuff over the years. Peace.