I was rather confused by all the graphs. One thing I did notice repeatedly was that as I looked for the United States on those graphs, we may be high on he income and mortality scales, we are sadly overachievers on the negative end of everything else. I am also curious as to how Illinois was in the middle of the trust scale, was our government officials left out. The mental illness graph also caught my attention, I have been doing a lot of research on the diagnosis of adolescent behavior and emotional issues and have repeatedly ran into misdiagnosis of such disorders as ADHD and depression. As far as the health and social aspects of America, we are in sad shape as a nation. We may have the money but that is about it. sherlocked012
sherlocked012, the graphs were, indeed, interesting (albeit a bit hard to read at times.) I wonder if The United States’ high score in the mental illness category is due to over diagnosis and misdiagnosis. Perhaps this is a negative latent affect of the increased awareness of mental illness over the past few years. – Jung012
If he wasn’t explaining things in greater detail than the graphs were showing I wouldn’t have understood any of what he was talking about. Even then there were a few points I still just don’t get. He is a great speaker but I think I’m missing context to read the graphs he used in his demonstration. –Pasta012
Sherlocked012 I totally agree with you on how sad of shape we are in as a nation as far as stratification but we are sad in the money part too. Its not the whole country that has money only our government and big business. I've been to the southern states and they are very poor compared to other states in our nation. Like he said in the video on it being different for quantity versus quality, the areas Ive been too there and people I met were more concerned with family ties and everyone helps everyone else rather then what they can get from someone or the newest high tech gadgets. Something needs to change thats for sure. Deacon012
The graphs showed me how rich countries with more diverse income gaps have fewer benefits for its people. Without the graphs, I wouldn't have understood why quality of life in Sweden was so different from that of the US. It balanced the field to show that when people are treated more equally, the entire society benefits from this. It shines a different light on taxation. Wealthier citizens who can avoid taxes are those that have been forming our society and it doesn't work for the other 99% of us. More isn't always better unless we are equal in our community or our country. OICU8 012
I am glad I wasn't the only person who had trouble following the graphs. From what I understood the United States is high in wealth but along with wealth comes stress, mental illness,trust issues, and just about every other problem a society can have. I would be interested in knowing how the information for this video was gathered. What kind of tests and surveys were performed. Hadrosaur012
The graphs confused me as well, but if you listen carefully he does a great job explaining what he wanted us to see after showing us the graph. I also thought the mental illness graph was very interesting. I know a great deal about adolescent behavior and the several emotional disorders that can be present, however I had no idea that it had any correlation with the inequality of the location in which the child may be living. Twal012
That was an interesting video! I had no idea that social stratification had such a profound affect on such a range of social issues. I wonder what, specifically, causes these drastic differences. While the presented pointed to the stress within societies with a wide divide between social strata, he didn’t seem to pinpoint what the specific root cause for the statistical data was. This would, perhaps, be a helpful topic for further examination by sociologists. In addition, now that this data is available, the question of what to do with it is significant. Should we seek to change our society to lessen the divide between the social classes or accept the stratification and its unfortunate bi-products? I found the graphs within the video to be particularly fascinating. In particular the social mobility and the mental illness graphs were enlightening. With the mental illness graph, I wonder if the results could be due to the fact that the US is better at recognizing, diagnosing, and documenting cases of mental illness that the other countries in the data. – Jung012
Unfortunately in our country the misdiagnosis in our youth for behavior issues is more common than we know. Now days parents want a quick fix for there active children and instead of going through the proper tests to get a correct diagnosis they are making a one appointment stop with their doctor and boom, the child is diagnosed and a script is written. For a proper diagnosis of ADHD thee are at least 20 known symptoms and multiple appointments are needed to screen them, most are diagnosed from 2-4 symptoms. This is also happening a lot in the mental health field, simple food allergies can cause symptoms that mimic some forms of depressions, but those take time to test for.
Unfortunately in our country the misdiagnosis in our youth for behavior issues is more common than we know. Now days parents want a quick fix for there active children and instead of going through the proper tests to get a correct diagnosis they are making a one appointment stop with their doctor and boom, the child is diagnosed and a script is written. For a proper diagnosis of ADHD thee are at least 20 known symptoms and multiple appointments are needed to screen them, most are diagnosed from 2-4 symptoms. This is also happening a lot in the mental health field, simple food allergies can cause symptoms that mimic some forms of depressions, but those take time to test for. sherlocked012
This video was a bit different than I’m used to looking at. He showed that the U.S. is very polarized and inconsistent while being very consistent at the same time. The one thing I do like that he pointed out was how different Japan and Sweden are but how similar they seemed to rank on the same graphs. That made me wonder if that is how the states here in the U.S. should go when it comes to taxes. Go with what works for your area with oversight and constant survey to ensure that it does not spiral out of control. It seems to me that we try and generalize everything to include everyone at every level and every sub-group equally, but because of stratification that can’t work and is doomed to fail. Standardization is okay but not when you lose the individual in the process. Recognize that you can fix and what is working and mesh them together to find a system that has the best benefits for everyone. –Pasta012
I agree! I hadn't really thought about that but yes our systems are made to try to benefit everyone which just doesn't work when dealing with such a wide range of people and incomes. I thought the majority of the graphs were really helpful and taught me more. VT012
This video was very slow but if you listen there is a lot of information. It was interesting to see the difference between the rich in some countries compared to others. The rich in japan are only 3.5 percent above the others in the country, while the rich in the u.s. is 7.5 percent above the rest. This just shows how much money there is in the u.s. that could be used in better ways or be more equally distributed. Both these videos have shown where the money is in all the counties but most importantly ours. And it shows where cuts have been made. Improvements need to be made on where funds are going and cuts are being made. The rich are making more money than they will ever need or use in their lifetime while the poor are barely getting by going hungry and dying at an early age. We need to bring more equality to the world. VT012
I agree with you about the income equality. However, I think US has tremendously open and provides opportunities for those who work hard can get ahead. I agree there are lot of rich people in our country, but most of them are philanthropist trying to do something good for others. Take Bill Gates for example. So, I don’t think the wealthy people should not be seen as negative to the society. I don’t think the the statistical comparison of our country with rest of the European and Japan is justified – chichi012
I agree that we need to do a better job of spreading the wealth, but how do we do that? I don't know any well off people that are interested in giving their money away to help the less fortunate. ..unless they can write it off on their taxes. However, judging by the graphs it doesn't appear they are spreading the wealth to their next generation. Crown012
I think a lot of the happiness in lower income families come from them being involved in more primary and secondary groups. In the US we see a lot of people having access to technology that pulls away a lot of their attention and time from their families and friends. This may be one of the reasons why we have lower happiness.
I don't deal well with graphs and was kind of confused with them but just listening to what he had to say about the inequalities made sense. I can totally see how the chronic stress and social evalulative concepts he mentioned come into play in the general stratification differences. I mean people spending so much time trying to "keep up the the jones" as Iv'e always heard it can have huge impact on your health and stress and same with being concerned with what people are thinking about you and whether or not your being judged. In other text I've read it says Mother Teresa had explained the U.S as having "angry" poverty while some other countries have "happy" poverty. I believe there's a definite connection with poverty and crime here because people want what others have, where like he said its more of quality not quantity in other countries. Other countries are happy to have family and each other instead of stuff whether your poor or not, their all poor together. Ive seen this myself just in the southern states in our own country. Theres always going to be a gap because some people want it more then others but I beleive our country and the others should be doing something to help out a little more for at least basic life needs such as food and electric and water. Deacon012
A Democratic approach to closing income gaps is essential to a better quality of life. When we have fewer inequalities, we all benefit from it. Inequality has almost always been a part of a growing society, but the greater our differences have become the more we all suffer for it. We live where the rich get richer and we are eliminating a middle class. When we reside in a beaujois-peasant type society, only a small percentage of the citizens benefit from it. I was more surprised about trust. It seems illogical for trust to be measured and understood, when our societies aren't really that much different. Poverty is relevant to who we live next to and how we judge others. This is more obvious when comparing Sweden to the US, for example. We don't realize that they have equalized their society to benefit all citizens, but that is what makes the Scandinavian countries a happier place to live. If a republican were to win the presidential election, our healthcare system would more than likely be destroyed. The little progress we have made would be a major setback to our betterment. It is not about what country we live in as much as it is about being socially more equal in that society. President Obama has done some great things during his presidency, and most of it has to do with equalizing its citizens. I am amazed at how many people cannot see past his skin, and realize how we have benefited from his decisions. He grew up with these differences as a part of his life. His father didn't leave him $200 million dollars so he could try to buy the presidency, he earned it. Wed are all very slow to learn of our injustices to each other. OICU8 012
I found this video hard to follow. I am not sure if it was the speaker's accent or what. The speaker sounded very knowledgeable but I still had trouble following. I read the chapter on global stratification and found the book easy to follow. I didn't get the graphs the speaker used. I think he needed to explain them more. To me they just looked like a diagonal line with dots next to countries names. I guess just because a country is wealthy doesn't mean that wealth is distributed evenly. There are very rich people in the United States. That wealth doesn't save them from having trust issues or mental health issues just like poor people can't avoid trust or mental health issues. The difference is rich people can afford to see doctors and buy medicines or hire the right people to take care of them where poor people can not. I liked how Mother Teresa described "Happy Poverty". Poverty in India, in this example, is eased by a sense of family and community. People accept their fate and have a sense of duty. Hadrosaur012
Was I the only one searching for the U.S. on the graphs? Anyway, I did have trouble understanding the graphs as it seemed he said things backwards to the graphs. But from what I took from it, it's that even though the income of the country may be high, it's not distributed evenly and the life quality is not the same. Poorer countries may have a lower life expectancy but a higher quality of life. The only thing I really took from this was that I should move to Denmark to chase the American Dream. Other than that I had a hard time understanding him, mostly because he talked quietly. But also he sounded as if he contradicted the graphs he used, it sounded backwards. However, a good video as I could get the gist of it. DeadMan012
I agree with you because I mean you have other countries that want to chase the American dream but they don't see the outcome of getting it. Besides from the graphs let the people see for what the world is really for. BlackHawks012
It is always interesting to watch TED videos as the speakers tend to produce lot of data. One of the interesting fact about life expectancy between Japan and US is well known. I learned lot of social facts about, especially Scandinavian countries and US. One of the things that I always wondered is the population of these countries. US has over three hundred million whereas Japan and other European countries that the speaker has taken as example are has only 10-20 percentage of US population. I am not sure if the comparison is justified. Nevertheless, the social in inequalities and the health factor got my attention, speaker’s note about moving to Denmark to chase American dream is worth noting as he tries the bring out a point. Also, in a democratic and capitalist countries like US, the wealth is not distributed evenly and sometimes I think that the statistics taking everyone evenly is, perhaps not justified. We should also recognize that US is better at tracking and keeping data and being transparent about these data than any other countries. Overall, I see the point that speaker is trying to make between health and wealth, it is a good presentation with lot of data that make us wonder. - Chichi012
I agree about the comparisons being justified. I believe that most of the numbers were a little off and makes me want to do some research to clarify some of the findings. The video did give out a lot of information though. Yes it was a little slow but very informative. Pinky012
At first I found the graph a little bit confusing but as the speaker was explaining it a little bit more I finally caught on to it. The Health and Social problems chart I thought stuck out the most because it states that the compare the decent to worse. I hate saying this but it doesn't shock me that America was the worst because we have more of a freedom than other countries do honestly. I also think that the most richest are only on the low side is because that people who live there are to basically show off that they can do better. I mean I can see the bigger picture to where it's coming from but it's sad that the richest countries are more obedient than other countries. BlackHawks012
I definitely agree the graphs were confusing for me as well. The health chart did stick out to me the most. It said that we as in the untied states were the worse. I agree it did not shock me that America was the worst. It should not be that way but what are we doing to try to change it? Blue012
The graphs were somewhat hard to follow in this video, but from what I gathered after his further explanation it is amazing the many correlations between poor and rich countries and where we are in relation to each other on the map. I thought it was very interesting that income affects so many different social topics such as well being and mental illness. The thing that stuck out the most to me in this video is what he said about trust. I found it interesting that people in the more unequal countries tend to trust each other less than the people in the more equal countries. If you think about it, this makes sense because people in the unequal countries are all on their own in a sense fighting for what they have. However, this was something that never even crossed my mind. It never occurred to me that a personality trait such as one’s ability to trust others could correlate with the equality of their country. I think it is important to remember that social stress is not just existent in our own lives on a day to day basis, but that it is present everywhere in the world especially in unequal countries affecting people’s mental and physical health like the immune system. This video does a good job of explaining the correlations of equal and unequal countries and made me more aware of them. Like he says, it truly is exciting that we can change some of the inequality through changing taxes. Twal012
I was a little confused on all the different graphs. I did however catch him saying that within are societies we are looking at individual social statuses weather we are equal or unequal. what I took from this video was that as of right now it doesn't matter weather we are rich or not that is not dependent on growth and life expectancy. It seemed to me that the united states was very high on each scale but had the worse numbers when it came to quality of life, trust, health, etc. I really couldn't understand him that well. My thing is that we have a lot to work on. One thing just because a country is wealthy does not mean that everyone benefits off of that wealth. I did not like all the different graphs. It was a little to much. Other than that it was an okay video. Blue012
I would have to agree with you all the different graphs that he used were a little confusing. Then he kept switching graphs and using different methods with them it was just a swing and miss. It was surprising that the us had the worst life quality even though we were one of the more developed countries. Godzilla012
This was a very interesting video the use of the graphs was a little bit confusing though. He would show one graph then take away the social stratification or something then the graph would change a little bit and it was hard to follow. The data however wasn't very surprising. When it had all the different variables such as drug and alcohol abuse and murders and, teenage pregnancies it wasn't surprising to see the USA on top of that list. I thought it was interesting when he had the bar graph of the top 20% of the richest compared to the rest it was surprising to see japan as the lowest out of the more developed nations. What I took from this is that these variables are not correlated with how rich your nation is but it is correlated with which social statue you are involved in. Godzilla012
How is the United States supposed to be the best country in the world when we're so far behind others when it comes to social and psychological problems. From the graphs you would think that since there is such a wide gap between the wealthy and the poor in our country that the rich would stay rich amd the poor stay poor. However, it seems that wealth doesn't travel generation to generation very well in our country. I suppose this could be seen as a good though in that just because your parents were poor doesn't mean you will be poor. America is the land of opportunity, but it doesn't appear to share it's wealth with others. We are the ultimate capitalists and it's hurting us in terms of our overall quality of life. Crown012
United states being labeled as 2x as rich but what do us Americans really have to show for that. I feel as if the government and big cooperations have must of our money. We pile money and money only into certain things in this country, where money can be used to more important things in our society. People in this country who break their back day in day out are struggling to get the necessities needed to survive. Some people cant even afford health care at the end of the day. I believe that our country is just not what it was at one time. We are so focused on what people think about us or focused on the wrong things. It was also very hard for me to follow the graphs. -dicaprio012
The graphs was interesting but I also was confused a bit. The high score in mental illness in the united states actually shocked me but then again I was wondering if it was from mistakes from missed diagnosis. Believe it or not but we have plenty of that here in the United States. I believe that a lot of things were overlooked and believe that the numbers on the charts was more than off even though that is just my opinion. The video did seem slow at times but I have to admit that there was a lot if interesting information for us to do research to make sure that it is accurate. Pinky012
I thought this video was very interesting. The statistics and information he presented about our very own state actually surprised me. I would have thought that we would have been worse along the scales but I was surprised to see how high on some of the stats we were, like the trust scale. It was also interesting to see the lfie expectancy graphs and to see how high up we are on those graphs as well. It was also interesting to compare wealth and happiness on the graphs as well. It appears that the nations with high incomes may actually be more unhappy then some of the poorer nations.
I was rather confused by all the graphs. One thing I did notice repeatedly was that as I looked for the United States on those graphs, we may be high on he income and mortality scales, we are sadly overachievers on the negative end of everything else. I am also curious as to how Illinois was in the middle of the trust scale, was our government officials left out. The mental illness graph also caught my attention, I have been doing a lot of research on the diagnosis of adolescent behavior and emotional issues and have repeatedly ran into misdiagnosis of such disorders as ADHD and depression. As far as the health and social aspects of America, we are in sad shape as a nation. We may have the money but that is about it. sherlocked012
ReplyDeletesherlocked012, the graphs were, indeed, interesting (albeit a bit hard to read at times.) I wonder if The United States’ high score in the mental illness category is due to over diagnosis and misdiagnosis. Perhaps this is a negative latent affect of the increased awareness of mental illness over the past few years. – Jung012
DeleteIf he wasn’t explaining things in greater detail than the graphs were showing I wouldn’t have understood any of what he was talking about. Even then there were a few points I still just don’t get. He is a great speaker but I think I’m missing context to read the graphs he used in his demonstration. –Pasta012
DeleteSherlocked012 I totally agree with you on how sad of shape we are in as a nation as far as stratification but we are sad in the money part too. Its not the whole country that has money only our government and big business. I've been to the southern states and they are very poor compared to other states in our nation. Like he said in the video on it being different for quantity versus quality, the areas Ive been too there and people I met were more concerned with family ties and everyone helps everyone else rather then what they can get from someone or the newest high tech gadgets. Something needs to change thats for sure. Deacon012
DeleteThe graphs showed me how rich countries with more diverse income gaps have fewer benefits for its people. Without the graphs, I wouldn't have understood why quality of life in Sweden was so different from that of the US. It balanced the field to show that when people are treated more equally, the entire society benefits from this. It shines a different light on taxation. Wealthier citizens who can avoid taxes are those that have been forming our society and it doesn't work for the other 99% of us. More isn't always better unless we are equal in our community or our country.
DeleteOICU8 012
I am glad I wasn't the only person who had trouble following the graphs. From what I understood the United States is high in wealth but along with wealth comes stress, mental illness,trust issues, and just about every other problem a society can have. I would be interested in knowing how the information for this video was gathered. What kind of tests and surveys were performed. Hadrosaur012
DeleteThe graphs confused me as well, but if you listen carefully he does a great job explaining what he wanted us to see after showing us the graph. I also thought the mental illness graph was very interesting. I know a great deal about adolescent behavior and the several emotional disorders that can be present, however I had no idea that it had any correlation with the inequality of the location in which the child may be living. Twal012
DeleteThat was an interesting video! I had no idea that social stratification had such a profound affect on such a range of social issues. I wonder what, specifically, causes these drastic differences. While the presented pointed to the stress within societies with a wide divide between social strata, he didn’t seem to pinpoint what the specific root cause for the statistical data was. This would, perhaps, be a helpful topic for further examination by sociologists. In addition, now that this data is available, the question of what to do with it is significant. Should we seek to change our society to lessen the divide between the social classes or accept the stratification and its unfortunate bi-products? I found the graphs within the video to be particularly fascinating. In particular the social mobility and the mental illness graphs were enlightening. With the mental illness graph, I wonder if the results could be due to the fact that the US is better at recognizing, diagnosing, and documenting cases of mental illness that the other countries in the data. – Jung012
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately in our country the misdiagnosis in our youth for behavior issues is more common than we know. Now days parents want a quick fix for there active children and instead of going through the proper tests to get a correct diagnosis they are making a one appointment stop with their doctor and boom, the child is diagnosed and a script is written. For a proper diagnosis of ADHD thee are at least 20 known symptoms and multiple appointments are needed to screen them, most are diagnosed from 2-4 symptoms. This is also happening a lot in the mental health field, simple food allergies can cause symptoms that mimic some forms of depressions, but those take time to test for.
DeleteUnfortunately in our country the misdiagnosis in our youth for behavior issues is more common than we know. Now days parents want a quick fix for there active children and instead of going through the proper tests to get a correct diagnosis they are making a one appointment stop with their doctor and boom, the child is diagnosed and a script is written. For a proper diagnosis of ADHD thee are at least 20 known symptoms and multiple appointments are needed to screen them, most are diagnosed from 2-4 symptoms. This is also happening a lot in the mental health field, simple food allergies can cause symptoms that mimic some forms of depressions, but those take time to test for. sherlocked012
DeleteThis video was a bit different than I’m used to looking at. He showed that the U.S. is very polarized and inconsistent while being very consistent at the same time. The one thing I do like that he pointed out was how different Japan and Sweden are but how similar they seemed to rank on the same graphs. That made me wonder if that is how the states here in the U.S. should go when it comes to taxes. Go with what works for your area with oversight and constant survey to ensure that it does not spiral out of control. It seems to me that we try and generalize everything to include everyone at every level and every sub-group equally, but because of stratification that can’t work and is doomed to fail. Standardization is okay but not when you lose the individual in the process. Recognize that you can fix and what is working and mesh them together to find a system that has the best benefits for everyone. –Pasta012
ReplyDeleteI agree! I hadn't really thought about that but yes our systems are made to try to benefit everyone which just doesn't work when dealing with such a wide range of people and incomes. I thought the majority of the graphs were really helpful and taught me more. VT012
DeleteThis video was very slow but if you listen there is a lot of information. It was interesting to see the difference between the rich in some countries compared to others. The rich in japan are only 3.5 percent above the others in the country, while the rich in the u.s. is 7.5 percent above the rest. This just shows how much money there is in the u.s. that could be used in better ways or be more equally distributed. Both these videos have shown where the money is in all the counties but most importantly ours. And it shows where cuts have been made. Improvements need to be made on where funds are going and cuts are being made. The rich are making more money than they will ever need or use in their lifetime while the poor are barely getting by going hungry and dying at an early age. We need to bring more equality to the world. VT012
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the income equality. However, I think US has tremendously open and provides opportunities for those who work hard can get ahead. I agree there are lot of rich people in our country, but most of them are philanthropist trying to do something good for others. Take Bill Gates for example. So, I don’t think the wealthy people should not be seen as negative to the society. I don’t think the the statistical comparison of our country with rest of the European and Japan is justified – chichi012
DeleteI agree that we need to do a better job of spreading the wealth, but how do we do that? I don't know any well off people that are interested in giving their money away to help the less fortunate. ..unless they can write it off on their taxes. However, judging by the graphs it doesn't appear they are spreading the wealth to their next generation. Crown012
DeleteI think a lot of the happiness in lower income families come from them being involved in more primary and secondary groups. In the US we see a lot of people having access to technology that pulls away a lot of their attention and time from their families and friends. This may be one of the reasons why we have lower happiness.
Deletemoot012^
DeleteI don't deal well with graphs and was kind of confused with them but just listening to what he had to say about the inequalities made sense. I can totally see how the chronic stress and social evalulative concepts he mentioned come into play in the general stratification differences. I mean people spending so much time trying to "keep up the the jones" as Iv'e always heard it can have huge impact on your health and stress and same with being concerned with what people are thinking about you and whether or not your being judged. In other text I've read it says Mother Teresa had explained the U.S as having "angry" poverty while some other countries have "happy" poverty. I believe there's a definite connection with poverty and crime here because people want what others have, where like he said its more of quality not quantity in other countries. Other countries are happy to have family and each other instead of stuff whether your poor or not, their all poor together. Ive seen this myself just in the southern states in our own country. Theres always going to be a gap because some people want it more then others but I beleive our country and the others should be doing something to help out a little more for at least basic life needs such as food and electric and water. Deacon012
ReplyDeleteA Democratic approach to closing income gaps is essential to a better quality of life. When we have fewer inequalities, we all benefit from it.
ReplyDeleteInequality has almost always been a part of a growing society, but the greater our differences have become the more we all suffer for it. We live where the rich get richer and we are eliminating a middle class. When we reside in a beaujois-peasant type society, only a small percentage of the citizens benefit from it.
I was more surprised about trust. It seems illogical for trust to be measured and understood, when our societies aren't really that much different. Poverty is relevant to who we live next to and how we judge others. This is more obvious when comparing Sweden to the US, for example. We don't realize that they have equalized their society to benefit all citizens, but that is what makes the Scandinavian countries a happier place to live.
If a republican were to win the presidential election, our healthcare system would more than likely be destroyed. The little progress we have made would be a major setback to our betterment. It is not about what country we live in as much as it is about being socially more equal in that society.
President Obama has done some great things during his presidency, and most of it has to do with equalizing its citizens. I am amazed at how many people cannot see past his skin, and realize how we have benefited from his decisions. He grew up with these differences as a part of his life. His father didn't leave him $200 million dollars so he could try to buy the presidency, he earned it.
Wed are all very slow to learn of our injustices to each other.
OICU8 012
I found this video hard to follow. I am not sure if it was the speaker's accent or what. The speaker sounded very knowledgeable but I still had trouble following. I read the chapter on global stratification and found the book easy to follow. I didn't get the graphs the speaker used. I think he needed to explain them more. To me they just looked like a diagonal line with dots next to countries names. I guess just because a country is wealthy doesn't mean that wealth is distributed evenly. There are very rich people in the United States. That wealth doesn't save them from having trust issues or mental health issues just like poor people can't avoid trust or mental health issues. The difference is rich people can afford to see doctors and buy medicines or hire the right people to take care of them where poor people can not. I liked how Mother Teresa described "Happy Poverty". Poverty in India, in this example, is eased by a sense of family and community. People accept their fate and have a sense of duty. Hadrosaur012
ReplyDeleteWas I the only one searching for the U.S. on the graphs? Anyway, I did have trouble understanding the graphs as it seemed he said things backwards to the graphs. But from what I took from it, it's that even though the income of the country may be high, it's not distributed evenly and the life quality is not the same. Poorer countries may have a lower life expectancy but a higher quality of life. The only thing I really took from this was that I should move to Denmark to chase the American Dream. Other than that I had a hard time understanding him, mostly because he talked quietly. But also he sounded as if he contradicted the graphs he used, it sounded backwards. However, a good video as I could get the gist of it. DeadMan012
ReplyDeleteI agree with you because I mean you have other countries that want to chase the American dream but they don't see the outcome of getting it. Besides from the graphs let the people see for what the world is really for. BlackHawks012
DeleteIt is always interesting to watch TED videos as the speakers tend to produce lot of data. One of the interesting fact about life expectancy between Japan and US is well known. I learned lot of social facts about, especially Scandinavian countries and US. One of the things that I always wondered is the population of these countries. US has over three hundred million whereas Japan and other European countries that the speaker has taken as example are has only 10-20 percentage of US population. I am not sure if the comparison is justified. Nevertheless, the social in inequalities and the health factor got my attention, speaker’s note about moving to Denmark to chase American dream is worth noting as he tries the bring out a point. Also, in a democratic and capitalist countries like US, the wealth is not distributed evenly and sometimes I think that the statistics taking everyone evenly is, perhaps not justified. We should also recognize that US is better at tracking and keeping data and being transparent about these data than any other countries. Overall, I see the point that speaker is trying to make between health and wealth, it is a good presentation with lot of data that make us wonder. - Chichi012
ReplyDeleteI agree about the comparisons being justified. I believe that most of the numbers were a little off and makes me want to do some research to clarify some of the findings. The video did give out a lot of information though. Yes it was a little slow but very informative. Pinky012
DeleteAt first I found the graph a little bit confusing but as the speaker was explaining it a little bit more I finally caught on to it. The Health and Social problems chart I thought stuck out the most because it states that the compare the decent to worse. I hate saying this but it doesn't shock me that America was the worst because we have more of a freedom than other countries do honestly. I also think that the most richest are only on the low side is because that people who live there are to basically show off that they can do better. I mean I can see the bigger picture to where it's coming from but it's sad that the richest countries are more obedient than other countries. BlackHawks012
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree the graphs were confusing for me as well. The health chart did stick out to me the most. It said that we as in the untied states were the worse. I agree it did not shock me that America was the worst. It should not be that way but what are we doing to try to change it? Blue012
DeleteThe graphs were somewhat hard to follow in this video, but from what I gathered after his further explanation it is amazing the many correlations between poor and rich countries and where we are in relation to each other on the map. I thought it was very interesting that income affects so many different social topics such as well being and mental illness. The thing that stuck out the most to me in this video is what he said about trust. I found it interesting that people in the more unequal countries tend to trust each other less than the people in the more equal countries. If you think about it, this makes sense because people in the unequal countries are all on their own in a sense fighting for what they have. However, this was something that never even crossed my mind. It never occurred to me that a personality trait such as one’s ability to trust others could correlate with the equality of their country. I think it is important to remember that social stress is not just existent in our own lives on a day to day basis, but that it is present everywhere in the world especially in unequal countries affecting people’s mental and physical health like the immune system. This video does a good job of explaining the correlations of equal and unequal countries and made me more aware of them. Like he says, it truly is exciting that we can change some of the inequality through changing taxes. Twal012
ReplyDeleteI was a little confused on all the different graphs. I did however catch him saying that within are societies we are looking at individual social statuses weather we are equal or unequal. what I took from this video was that as of right now it doesn't matter weather we are rich or not that is not dependent on growth and life expectancy. It seemed to me that the united states was very high on each scale but had the worse numbers when it came to quality of life, trust, health, etc. I really couldn't understand him that well. My thing is that we have a lot to work on. One thing just because a country is wealthy does not mean that everyone benefits off of that wealth. I did not like all the different graphs. It was a little to much. Other than that it was an okay video. Blue012
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with you all the different graphs that he used were a little confusing. Then he kept switching graphs and using different methods with them it was just a swing and miss. It was surprising that the us had the worst life quality even though we were one of the more developed countries. Godzilla012
DeleteThis was a very interesting video the use of the graphs was a little bit confusing though. He would show one graph then take away the social stratification or something then the graph would change a little bit and it was hard to follow. The data however wasn't very surprising. When it had all the different variables such as drug and alcohol abuse and murders and, teenage pregnancies it wasn't surprising to see the USA on top of that list. I thought it was interesting when he had the bar graph of the top 20% of the richest compared to the rest it was surprising to see japan as the lowest out of the more developed nations. What I took from this is that these variables are not correlated with how rich your nation is but it is correlated with which social statue you are involved in. Godzilla012
ReplyDeleteHow is the United States supposed to be the best country in the world when we're so far behind others when it comes to social and psychological problems. From the graphs you would think that since there is such a wide gap between the wealthy and the poor in our country that the rich would stay rich amd the poor stay poor. However, it seems that wealth doesn't travel generation to generation very well in our country. I suppose this could be seen as a good though in that just because your parents were poor doesn't mean you will be poor. America is the land of opportunity, but it doesn't appear to share it's wealth with others. We are the ultimate capitalists and it's hurting us in terms of our overall quality of life. Crown012
ReplyDeleteUnited states being labeled as 2x as rich but what do us Americans really have to show for that. I feel as if the government and big cooperations have must of our money. We pile money and money only into certain things in this country, where money can be used to more important things in our society. People in this country who break their back day in day out are struggling to get the necessities needed to survive. Some people cant even afford health care at the end of the day. I believe that our country is just not what it was at one time. We are so focused on what people think about us or focused on the wrong things. It was also very hard for me to follow the graphs. -dicaprio012
ReplyDeleteThe graphs was interesting but I also was confused a bit. The high score in mental illness in the united states actually shocked me but then again I was wondering if it was from mistakes from missed diagnosis. Believe it or not but we have plenty of that here in the United States. I believe that a lot of things were overlooked and believe that the numbers on the charts was more than off even though that is just my opinion. The video did seem slow at times but I have to admit that there was a lot if interesting information for us to do research to make sure that it is accurate. Pinky012
ReplyDeleteI thought this video was very interesting. The statistics and information he presented about our very own state actually surprised me. I would have thought that we would have been worse along the scales but I was surprised to see how high on some of the stats we were, like the trust scale. It was also interesting to see the lfie expectancy graphs and to see how high up we are on those graphs as well. It was also interesting to compare wealth and happiness on the graphs as well. It appears that the nations with high incomes may actually be more unhappy then some of the poorer nations.
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