Reducing Income Inequality Through Shopping

Can shopping help us reduce income inequality?  Maybe - there is some research that says it can help - dramatically.

Here is the article: https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/solidarity/shop-here-not-there-science-says-reducing-inequality-is-almost-that-simple-20171120

And here is a link to the research report - https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.08394

Here is the synopsis of the study

Socioeconomic inequalities in cities are embedded in space and result in neighborhood effects, whose harmful consequences have proved very hard to counterbalance efficiently by planning policies alone. Considering redistribution of money flows as a first step toward improved spatial equity, we study a bottom-up approach that would rely on a slight evolution of shopping mobility practices. Building on a database of anonymized credit card transactions in Madrid and Barcelona, we quantify the mobility effort required to reach a reference situation where commercial income is evenly shared among neighborhoods. The redirections of shopping trips preserve key properties of human mobility, including travel distances. Surprisingly, for both cities only a small fraction (∼5%) of trips need to be altered to reach equity situations, improving even other sustainability indicators. The method could be implemented in mobile applications that would assist individuals in reshaping their shopping practices, to promote the spatial redistribution of opportunities in the city.

The key point - if 5% of our shopping dollars were spent in poorer neighborhoods, income inequality can be drastically reduced.  In the cities studied - a 5% shift in the where geographically the money is spent reduced inequality up to 80 percent.

Why this works? "Rewiring shopping trips to cross those neighborhood boundaries can decrease the ghettoization that urban neighborhoods experience."

How can we use this information as individuals?  Well - this sort of solution is a bottom up solution, meaning, we the people need to cross the boundaries and make sure that none of the communities become ghettoized.  Meaning - we don't consider bad neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods and we cross and shift some of our shopping into places that we would otherwise neglect.  We intentionally take affirmative action to ensure that our shopping is diversified.

Part of this is transportation - making sure that people can get to place and feel safe in those spaces so they feel safe spending a portion of their money in those places.

It's an interesting idea and worth exploring I think.

Accept people for who they are

For me, part of being a Humanist means that I accept people for who they are, not who I want or might need them to be.  This is what “the inherent dignity and worth” of each human means. It is also important to me because embracing reality is important to me. I know that in order to solve my problems, I first need to understand them.

Many or most of our problems have an interpersonal dimension to them.  In order to solve our problem we need other people to help us. And in in order to get them to help us, we need to understand how to motivate them to help. And to do that, we need to understand what actually motivates them.

And here is where people go wrong. They assume that other people are motivated by the same things they are. Someone who is motivated by money, tends to throw  money at the problem hoping that this will motivate other people. Others might be motivated to help the environment and so trying to give them money to agree with you isn’t going to work, just as an example.

In order to be successful, you need to take the time to accept people for who they are and not as who you assume them to be. 

The importance of reality

Image by Phaitoon - http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

File this under Humanistic Leadership. When it comes to dealing with people, differences of opinion are very common. It always amazed me how many people, when they have a disagreement with a coworker assume evil intentions to their coworker, creating needless conflict where none need exist. That’s because people don’t bother to question the assumptions they are making to figure out whether what they think is a problem is actually a problem. This is one of the reasons why Humanists spend so much time engaging critical thinking.  We don’t like to waste our time chasing after paper tigers. We want to focus our time on real problems and not on imaginary ones.

For instance, if you are having a disagreement with someone over tactics, take the time to respectfully ask this person WHY they are focusing on the solution they are. You may just find out that you overlooked something important.  Most people just want to try and do the right thing.  By taking the time to not fight people with different ideas, but to learn from them, you may turn what could have been an adversarial situation into an alliance. Always remember, winning an argument doesn’t do you any good if your ultimate solution doesn’t work. Never assume you know all that you need to know and always treat people with differing ideas with respect.  Don’t assume your coworkers are out to get you unless you have verified that they are really out to get you. Reality matters.

The other mistake people make is they tend to completely ignore problems that arise because; they literally refuse to believe they have a problem. It’s called denial and we all do it to some extent. I am always amazed at the amount of energy people put into their denials. It would be way easier to just accept the new challenges you have to face, but people are often afraid to do so.  Since it is always better to accept reality for what it is, the next time someone brings you bad news, and you don’t want to believe it, force yourself to do a little research and find out if the bad news is real or not. That way you won’t act like a complete reality denying idiot nor will you waste your time and energy on problems that aren’t real.

To recap – knowing what is real is important.  If you don’t know if a problem is real or not, you will waste time fixing non-problems and you will ignore the problems you have. Don’t waste your time and energy, embrace reality instead.