Viral Inequality
When I was a little girl there was a particular puzzle among our family games and play things, and on the box was painted picture of a little boy sitting on the ground outside the wall of a baseball park. It wasn’t Wrigley or Fenway, just some non-descript stadium with a high wall, but it was possible to see a baseball game was taking place. There was a sign on the stadium wall with the price of admission (25 cents, if I recall) and a declaration: No Dogs Allowed. The little boy had two problems. First, his pockets were emptied out onto the ground it was clear among the pennies and marbles and tiny things in a pile before him that he did not have the money necessary to get into the baseball game. Second, sitting beside him on the ground was a small dog, looking very sad because he could tell his boy was sad- there was a big painted tear rolling down the boy’s cheek. As I studied the picture on the box there was soon a big tear rolling down my own cheek. To me, the boy was real, his predicament was real, and for the first time I was aware of someone having or having not. This upset me deeply, and soon my crying came to the attention of my siblings. I think they made fun of me, and embedded in the memory is my mom offering comfort as I sobbed to her, “Why don’t they just let him go to the baseball game?” For my little four or five year old self, it was a harsh introduction to inequality.
Forty-some years later, I still struggle with my feelings regarding inequality in the world. I have never been particularly motivated by money, myself, I’ve not made much bank in my life, and have not had the means to level the playing field on a global spectrum, like Mackenzie Scott #hero is seeking to do. But I’d always believed in the back of my mind that equality would happen. I realize this is naive, but I kinda thought we all were working toward a basic level of “having” for all; a reality where basic needs are met and people can live and prosper because of that fact.
A couple fast facts on the Global Playing Field of Inequality, after pandemic life. There are 664 U.S. billionaires. Their combined wealth has increased by 44% since March 2020. If the current proposed wealth tax had been in place during the past year, the billionaires would have contributed 114 billion. Imagine the good that could have been done with such an amount. And sadly, much points to the fact that this divide is going to increase. History will look back at this moment as a mark where Everything Changed.
Can I do anything to even the playing field? What can any of us can do, with limited or unlimited resources? Including the resource of time, which also factors into equality. I once read something to the effect: Beyonce has as many hours in the day as anyone else. The example was intended to motivate creative action. Ok, sure, she has just as much time as me… but guaranteed she also has someone to do her laundry, clean her house, run her errands, and on and on. Thus another notch on the inequality pole is that some people have much more time to spend on creative or leisure pursuits, while others are trying to subsist, and spend hours of their day in work, to and from work, with little time left over for leisure, including the creative kind.
I keep in mind a quote by Mother Teresa: “Don’t look for big things, just do small things with great love.” In post-lockdown-pandemic life, there are so many small things to do to help, and I seek to do them when I can. I don’t have Mackenzie Scott’s fortune to dedicate to making world change, but where I see inequality I can speak up, step up, take part in small change. When History looks back, I think it will also show the pandemic age is where things started to come into focus about the problem of inequality and what must be done about it. My job is to pay attention, stay engaged and motivated, and act when I can. The alternative is to perish of a virus worse than Covid or any other, and that’s an apathetic path I don’t want to go down.
