Society featured

The Haves & The Have-Nots

January 22, 2024

Recorded December 18 2023

Description

In this Frankly, Nate follows up the recent Reality Roundtable on poverty with a wider perspective on the different types of “wealth” in our society that go beyond the material. At the same time that the power dynamic of the economic superorganism leads us to a hyperfocus on the pursuit of growth and monetary wealth, other forms of poverty increase:  relationships, skills, health, and behavioral deficits. How do our assumptions and societal expectations align with the reality of what it means to be rich? Can reflecting on our own place within the various “Haves” and “Have-Nots” help us be more compassionate towards others and direct us to a more stable and sane place in society? How will the turmoil and decrease in total material wealth in the coming decades change what it means to be wealthy – and how does that influence the actions and investments we take on today?

YouTube Link here

Show Notes

00:10 – Reality Roundtable #7: Poverty

01:04 – Mean income per capita in the U.S. vs Median income per capita in the U.S.

02:17 – Average increase in use of goods and services from 200 years ago globally and in the U.S.

03:38 – Material wealth enables isolation

05:14 – Long COVID

05:20 – Endocrine disruptors

05:24 – Metabolic health declines

05:50 – Percentage of people on mental health medications

06:20 – Declining attention spans

07:55 – Link between agency and mental health

08:20 – Discussing an issue reduces cortisol and boosts helper-T cells

08:58 – DJ White

09:28 – Abrahamic religions

09:38 – Meaning crisis

09:57 – Overton window

10:27 – Dark Triad, 10% of people and prevalence in high level positions

Image Attribution Credits

Lee Bob Black, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

John Edwards, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Lorie Shaull from Washington, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

LLs, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens is the Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF) an organization focused on educating and preparing society for the coming cultural transition. Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians and systems thinkers ISEOF assembles road-maps and off-ramps for how human societies can adapt to lower throughput lifestyles.

Nate holds a Masters Degree in Finance with Honors from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. He teaches an Honors course, Reality 101, at the University of Minnesota.