When?

I suppose everything is relative to where you happen to be standing. What matters to you, why you do what you do, who you are, how you think is all shaped partly by perspective and context. We have self interests to think of, we have families, jobs, concerns, each of which cause us to behave in certain ways. Context is not the sole determinant of action, but it has a lot to do with shaping our actions. This is a hard fact when one considers just how bad the context surrounding some of is. I live in Washington, D.C., and yesterday 3 teenagers were murdered in one day. That isn't that abnormal for D.C. Since July, when there were 14 murders in July's first 13 days, the city has been in a crime emergency. Though D.C. is even now far from the national tragedy that it once was when the crack epidemic first hit, it is still one of the most segregated cities in America; inequality sleeps not a mile from the president's bed. As of 2004, only four states had poverty rates higher than D.C. yet it is surrounded by the 2nd wealthiest suburbs in America. According to the Economist,

The Washington metropolitan area is now home to five of the ten richest large counties in America, including the top three, according to new data from the Census Bureau. The region is also the second wealthiest in the country—behind San Jose—and has the lowest poverty rate (7%) of any big metropolitan area. The Census Bureau defines a big county as having more than 250,000 people. Loudoun County, Virginia, with an estimated median household income of $98,000, is the richest such county in America; Fairfax County, Virginia, and Howard County, Maryland, are close behind, with median household incomes of $94,000 and $91,000, respectively. Maryland’s Montgomery County is sixth, with slightly more than $82,000, and Virginia’s Prince William County is seventh, with a median household income of just under $82,000. (Economist, City Guide: Washington; October, 2006)

It is the great tragedy that for all of man's perceptive powers, it is, as George Orwell said, a constant struggle to see what is right in front of one's own face. According to the CIA World Fact Book, which provides basic data on all the world's countries, economic inequality has been on the rise for the past 30 years in America, and poses one of a number of long term problems for the U.S. economy

The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households.

This problem has been around for a long time, and it will continue to hold the growth of America's economy back because unless we educate our work force better, the jobs will continue to go elsewhere. We have the largest economy in the world. Imagine how much larger it would be if more of the work force were involved in the real growth industries. Inequality would not pervade our lives; our cities would be safer places to live. Yet context keeps this dream from becoming a reality.

When Richard Wright wrote Native Son, he hoped that his character Bigger Thomas would strike such fear into the hearts of White America that it would finally see that Black people must be treated better lest more Bigger Thomas' appear and kill their women. It did not have that effect. but I wonder if an economic collapse or even merely a slow-down would help convince Americans that we all have value to one another. That value need not be seen in monetary terms, but in the simple concept of necessity. We live in an environment in which we all try to fill some niche. Everyone relies on people in the other niches for his/her own personal survival. The economy joins us all together, helps us see the necessity of those people right in front of our faces. Maybe it can show us the way to equality, for our hearts and our minds have lead us astray.