Implications if the rich are less compassionate

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-wealth-reduces-compassion/

Our recent discussion in lecture featured Professor Talwalker's essay, "What Kind of Global Citizen is the Student Volunteer." One of the interesting studies she brings up is Piff et. al's work on prosociality. Lower class individuals demonstrate greater procial behavior and are more compassionate than upper class individuals. This plays directly against the common notion of charitable, lavish donors vs. poor families who are inherently selfish to maintain the little they have.

The above article elaborates more on Piff and Keltner's exact research. As you can see through the article, Piff and Keltner have run a multitude of experiments to show that the affluent form a disconnect with the poor and suffering since they themselves don't experience it on a daily basis. This inability to relate/connect affects their inclination to be charitable. What interests me is the implications of this study on the developmental aid industry and theory. Critics and theorists like Jeffrey Sachs call for nations to abide to their previous agreement to donating 1% of their total GDP. This, in Sachs' perspective, would transform the developing world, pushing them up the ladder of development. However, if this problem persists and nation still refuse to donate 1% of more of their GDP to charity, the individual donor contribution becomes much more vital. With this study in mind, and assuming it applies to most affluent people (since most have grown up in affluence all their lives), the concept that enough aid will flow to these nations is not practical. To extend this concept further, since politics and wealth have grown together in recent years so drastically, the reason why many developed nations are not donating their 1% share of their GDP to third world nations is because of this lack of compassion.

We can also extend this concept that the rich possess less compassion more thoroughly in the realm of politics. The individuals running for office these days are often people who live lavishly. More and more money has to be spent on campaigning, much of it out-of-pocket expenses. Politics correlate to wealth which correlate to power. In order to run for any political office these days, you must have a lot of money to first of all reach that level in which a party puts trust in you and while campaigning. Thus the rich are the only citizens with access to the power of the government, the institution that perhaps requires the most compassion out of all our nation's institutions since its job is to take care of its people to maintain a functional society. With people at the top with all this power lacking in compassion due to a disconnect with the poor he governs over, poverty inevitably results.  Food stamps get cut and welfare for the poor become less a priority.

Of course, there are exceptions to the scenarios I described above, and they are extremist. This indication that the rich has less compassion than low-income families is not the only factor that influences the success of the aid industry or politics. But it could be a root cause for these issues. The problem is if they are inherent tendencies humans have in hierarchical political/economic systems. if they are, then they are terribly difficult to fix.

Glowing

A few months ago I read an article about a music video that Tyler The Creator directed for an anonymous artist, the song and video are titled “Glowing." To me the video is beautiful but it has a very powerful indirect message. The video features a love story from childhood through old age. Although this is the focus of the video there is an old television set that appears in different scenes with videos as well as images of poverty and disaster in the mist of the love story that is occurring simultaneously. The video ultimately tries to present the neglect and ignorance towards poverty issues.  I returned to this video today because I sensed it has a lot of connection to the ideas in Talwalker and Katz’s essays. Talwalker focuses on the spark in college students from the Global North seeking to volunteer in places with poverty issues. Many of us see powerful images of poverty and are immediately gain a “philanthropic impulse” like she mentions. Personally, when I see poverty with my own eyes or even in images I have a “philanthropic impulse.” The music video also can be tied to the other end of the spectrum and to the idea that upper class individuals have a lesser sense of giving. The love story presents two individuals oblivious to the poverty and disaster going on around them. Since the essay mentions that the upper class take less part in prosocial behavior this can be represented in the video with the blind love of the individuals, not because of affluence but because of unawareness of feeling connected with others like lower classes do. Katz’s “What Kind of a Problem is Poverty” can also be connected the “Glowing” music video particularly to the cause of poverty that is places. Although this is not delving into the deeper-rooted problems of poverty, before being able to do that it is important that poverty is visible. The music video is a method to end the invisibly of “territories of poverty.” Willful ignorance as Katz describes is a reason as to why poverty remains invisible. Even though this video is exposing the problems of poverty it is linking it to the lack of its recognition. To me, this music video can spark a lot of thoughts relating to the approaches in which we discuss poverty. It can be either a tool of action or a representation of neglect.