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Wealth Gap
Written by: Shale Lucas
What is a wealth gap? Where has the wealth gap in America originated from? How is it relevant to everyone regardless of age? Why is financial literacy important to reducing widespread poverty? Grab a glass of water because we’ll be dissecting the massive wealth gap in the U.S.
The wealth gap, otherwise known as wealth inequality, is defined as the unequal distribution of assets in a group of people. In layman’s terms, that just means that certain groups of people have considerably more assets than other groups of people. In regards to finance, an asset is a resource that provides future benefit like a house, or a stock. The history of the wealth inequality in America ultimately traces back to 1915. A statistician by the name of Willford I. King published a comprehensive summary of wealth that showed that America’s top 1% possessed over 18% of the entire nations income. Families like the Rockefeller’s and the Carnegie’s started America’s modern income tax. There have been several occasions where the wealth distribution in the U.S came very close to equal; however, the Great Depression and its repercussions brought about reduced levels of wealth inequality. In the period known as the Great Compression (the time after the Great Depression), wealth inequality was reduced significantly. Two decades after the Great Depression, the Great Compression was at its peak because from 1942 - 1952, the top 1% accounted for just under 10% of America's income. After this came the 70’s which was plagued with the highest levels of inflation in the U.S. Because of the inflation, slow growth, and high unemployment, the 70’s became the perfect breeding ground for a divergence between the 1% and the rest of the U.S.
After the 70’s and its inflation, came the infamous Great Recession in 2008. The Great Recession occurred because of the real estate crisis in the U.S. Many banks gave out terrible loans to people who couldn’t afford those loans. This established a catalyst for the U.S economy to crash. In short, the Great Recession refers to the economic downturn from December of 2007 to June of 2009. Several factors contributed to the Great Recession like a lack of regulation, the effects of shadow banking, and too many people taking out loans. All in all, there have been several instances of economic downturn which ultimately increases the divergence of wealth. Wealth inequality can also stem from the outsourcing of work and technology replacing jobs. Outsourcing work generally stems from companies trying to reduce costs, and one way they can achieve this is through hiring international workers. Then, companies can pay those workers less money, effectively getting the same amount of labour completed while simultaneously saving money (I mean who wouldn’t?). Outsourcing labour generally isn’t good for domestic economies because domestic workers have less access to jobs. If domestic workers have fewer jobs to choose from, they will suffer from wealth inequality, not to mention a lot of other issues. Technology also plays a role because jobs like cashiers, journalists, and even stock traders are being replaced by technology. Although there are benefits to automation and outsourcing, these concepts come with wealth inequality.
These instances reveal the importance of financial literacy and education. Financial literacy is directly correlated with reduced poverty levels. If financial literacy was widespread across the U.S and other nations that suffer from extreme wealth gaps, then I believe that wealth divergence would become something of the past. Obtaining a higher level of education allows for individuals to access more jobs in different fields. For instance, an Electrical Engineer can work in a lab, engineering firm, technology company, or even at an investment bank. Still, a high school student, so don’t take advice from me, of all people.
Great Resources to learn more about the U.S wealth inequality
Is China’s Social Credit System going to end with a dystopia or utopia?
Written by: Shale Lucas
The Chinese Communist Party is an economic superpower on the global stage. With somewhat shady business practices, the country has grown tremendously. With this growth, has evolved a mass surveillance system that is used to give people points based on their public performance. What is the Chinese social credit system? And more importantly what can this lead to? Put your thinking caps on because we will be discussing the Chinese Social Credit system.
Let's jump back in time to understand the start of the Social Credit System. The concept of a Social Credit System was researched by Chinese analysts in the late 1990’s. Funny enough, in the initial concept, there were brief mentions of a social, and political aspect to the credit system. The initial concept was very similar to a credit bureau like Experian, EquiFax, or TransUnion. (Mini Finance lesson incoming), essentially credit bureau’s use many factors like payment history and timeliness, to create a score to determine trust. This score is called a credit score and the higher it is, the better loans are offered, and access an individual has to financial tools increases. Anyways, this changed dramatically in later years though. In 2012, China’s National Development and Reform Commission decided that the credit system should be solely used for a social purpose rather than a financial purpose. However at the same time the Chinese Central Bank created a financial credit score system. So there were two systems being developed at that time: The Social Credit System and The Financial Credit System.
Even commercial businesses have in on the credit system. Therefore, this means that there are many different sources of credit within the Chinese nation-state. This brings up a great question. Why are there so many different social credit systems in China? And truthfully, I don't see a justifiable reason for this. I don’t find any particular reason for the Chinese Communist Party to make this system differ across different pilot cities and districts. So what is wrong with this system of social credit? To start, you are given 1000 points and points can be taken and given for various reasons. The extent to which the point system functions is beyond my rational understanding. As an individual in China, one can lose rights to this point system. For example, a person can lose the ability to go to school. Yes, school, the one thing you’d assume a lot of people have access to is being put in the way of an arbitrary system. This reminds me of the Nestle CEO, Ulf Mark Schneider who implied that water isn’t a human right.
This social credit system creates a dystopian like place to live, which doesn’t constitute any growth at all. If you ask me, I think this system is completely arbitrary based on the fact that you can lose human rights to a point system. Also I think this system prevents people from ultimately questioning the things the government does because the Chinese government can view it as an offense and deduct points. Furthermore, this can also lead to corruption within the system because people can bribe others to raise their score. Not to mention, this system gamifies society by implementing a point system into some of the most important parts of life. However, since I live in America, I have a different perspective on things that may seem restrictive. Chinese culture is based on morals so the ideology could have derived from this morally correct central viewpoint. Despite this, I still believe that denying people of their human rights, to a point system, is questionable in terms of a “normal (western)” rationale. But what do I know, I’m just a kid in the middle of NYC.
Great Resources to learn more about China’s SCS(Social Credit System)
How important is Data in Today’s Society?
Written by: Shale Lucas
Data has been regarded by several sources as “the new oil”, but what makes people think that? Why has data always been important? How does data impact every industry? How will it become more important going forward? Get your reading glasses because we will be breaking down data.
To get a hold of data and its intrinsic bond with most decisions, we must observe the history of data. The first examples of data collection stem from tally marks. Yes. The same tally marks you use to play hangman. Tally marks were used by ancient civilizations to keep track of different variables, whether it be food or wood. After the revolutionary tally mark came the abacus. The abacus is believed to have derived from the Babylonian region where it was used for writing. From writing, the abacus moved its way into commerce, and from there it was used for computing and counting. The abacus had two basic concepts integrated into its design: counters and lines. The counters filled the place of 1’s, 10’s, 100’s, etc. The lines in the abacus were used to keep the counters in place. Basic calculations were made with the Babylonian abacus. It would be foolish of me to not speak about the Roman abacus, especially because Latin is a three year course (man time flies....). On a different note, the Roman abacus kept the same fundamental values of the abacus but it changed how the counters were arranged. Specifically the Roman abacus was based on a tablet. This made it much easier to transport around and this fact can be attributed to the Romans success in public works that are still standing today like the Colosseum.
Data has evolved from the abacus, and has seen many useful applications besides tracking wealth or construction calculations. For instance, COVID-19 data has played a major role in keeping the public informed about current events, hospital information, and case numbers. The vital role that data has is something that impacts all industries. For example, if a scientist doesn’t track data and interpret it correctly, their findings will be useless because there won’t be any quantitative or statistical evidence. Interpreting data is equally important if not more important than tracking it. It would be naive of me to not mention some negatives associated with data. Data is something that is extremely sensitive to human interaction. Bias and other factors (like this one) can influence data interpretation. All of these reasons share a common theme about the significance of data. Programming and data have gone hand in hand due to bias. A program built by a person can have a bias, because programs are built by humans (obviously…). This type of bias is known as algorithmic bias and it has been found on many different occasions.
So what, you found that data is important. If you aren’t living under a rock, you most likely know this. So what does this mean? If you take an objective approach to the metaphor, we notice that oil is being compared to data (tell me something I don’t know). Oil is a finite resource, but data is something that is infinite in applications and interpretations. Data cannot be compared to oil effectively in this context, however, both data and oil are valuable and lucrative assets to have right now (renewables for the win). In an ever growing society that is increasing its focus on the average consumer (consumerism) to maximize profits, data is critical to companies large and small. Big data is a term that coincides with companies using statistics to increase customer satisfaction and revenue. Big data is seen everywhere from social media to medical records. If you ask me, I think all types of data are here to stay; but what do I know? I’m just a junior and this is just a high school newspaper article.
Great Resources to learn more about Data
What is Geoengineering?
By Shale Lucas
When it boils down to silver bullet solutions, GeoEngineering will inherently be considered in a discussion regarding persisting climate issues. What is Geoengineering? How does Geoengineering affect everyone? Is it an actual solution to climate change and persisting issues? Stick around because we will be dissecting Geoengineering.
Formerly known as Climate Engineering or Climate Intervention, Geoengineering is defined by the Oxford Martin School as the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems to counteract climate change. The history of Geoengineering begins in the middle of the 20th century, when many proposals were made to alter weather conditions to garner a regional climate that is more favorable in comparison to other climate conditions. This type of geoengineering is known as cloud seeding and has been tested and used extensively in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). Cloud seeding is the process in which a plane carries silver iodide or carbon dioxide and disperses it into rain bearing clouds. However, the subject matter of geoengineering is split into two broad categories : CDR ( Carbon Dioxide Removal), and SRM ( Solar Radiation Management).
CDR or Carbon Dioxide Removal is defined as the process of removing CO2 from the atmosphere, and the technology follows the idea of negative emissions. There are different types of CDR, creating a broad spectrum that varies based on the amount of technology included in each solution. The most low technological solution would be to plant trees. On the other end of the technological spectrum there is BECCS or Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage. Although both technologies are seemingly great solutions to the climate crisis, they have some very bold downsides. Planting trees faces the mere fact that land is the biggest issue, because to plant an amount of trees that is effective, you’d need a massive amount of land that isn’t available to us. On the other hand, the issue with BECCS is that there may be unwanted ecological effects on our oceans. There have been several companies that have entered the space including Carbon Engineering, (ironically backed by oil giants at the likes of Chevron, and Occidental, however, also backed by Bill Gates) Climeworks, and Global Thermostat LLC. Is it coincidental that oil giants work with these companies… I’ll leave that for you to decide.
SRM or Solar Radiation Management is defined as the process of reflecting a small portion of sunlight back into space to limit the amount of sunlight that reaches Earth’s surface. There are two widely known types of Solar Radiation Management being Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, and Marine Cloud Brightening. Stratospheric Aerosol Injection consists of introducing minute particles of SO2 ( Sulfur Dioxide) into the stratosphere. The aerosols or particles would reflect some sunlight back into space to create a synthetic dimming effect. This process closely follows the natural effect that volcanoes have on the environment. The other proposal is Marine Cloud Brightening which essentially consists of covering large amounts of the oceans in clouds that are lighter in color to reflect more sunlight into space. Similarly to CDR there are a host of potential unwanted effects for both of these proposals. In the case of Stratospheric Aerosol Injections ozone depletion is one of the main risks, and in the case of Marine Cloud Brightening, extreme amounts of regional cooling and local weather are downsides.
In all cases, there are still moral, political, and humanitarian issues involved with all of these proposals. In short, the best solution to the climate crisis is to end all emissions as soon as possible, and defund and dismantle the oil giants like Chevron, Exxon Mobil, (who knew about climate change) and BP.
Great Resources to learn more about Geoengineering:
Is Nuclear energy good or is it just as bad as the public makes it out to be?
By Shale Lucas
Why does Nuclear Energy face so much criticism in the media? What are the actual benefits and downsides to Nuclear Energy? Stick around because we will be investigating Nuclear Energy.
To understand the stigma around Nuclear Energy, we have to understand the exaggerations surrounding it first. Nuclear energy is something that has received a lot of skepticism, in regards to the great climate debate. For starters, nuclear energy has a long history. The first nuclear power plant was commissioned in Obninsk, Russia on June 27th, 1954. This symbolized a shift within science and technology because this was the first time that Nuclear energy was used to power the environment. This reactor functioned perfectly without any spills or accidents for over 50 years but it was decommissioned in 2002. However, not all nuclear reactors have great endings like the one in Obninsk, Russia. Some reactors are fatal. A couple years later, after the U.S dropped two bombs on Japan, the U.S military experimented with atomic science for energy instead of weaponry. The U.S Army built the reactor known as the Stationary Low Power Reactor, Number 1or SL-1 for short. This was ultimately intended to be an experiment that paved the way for nuclear power facilities in the remote arctic. This facility operated for more than 2 years, but disaster was imminent. On January 3rd, 1961, the reactor had a malfunction, overheated, shot nine feet into the air, and killed the 3 men inside. This reaction occurred in a mere 4 milliseconds. (Mini science lesson incoming), nuclear reactors work by using nuclear fission to heat water into steam and spin a turbine. An engineer (Nuclear Engineering Technician) controls the rate of fission using control rods. Well on January 3rd, 1961, one of the control rods was moved too far from the nuclear core. To gain some context on how fast 4 milliseconds is, I’ll compare very fast things to 4 milliseconds. For starters, the average human reaction takes around 250 milliseconds. This concludes that the reaction was fast, inexplicably fast. On another note, the power to move the control rods has since been given to computers.
There are plenty of other horrific incidents with Nuclear Reactors like the infamous Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi, and Three Mile Island. These accidents all share commonalities, being that not that many people died. Hear me out. To make this article even more gruesome, let's compare the death toll from Chernobyl (the worst nuclear disaster) to the worst coal mining accident: The Benxihu Colliery Disaster in China. Chernobyl killed 30 people from acute radiation sickness, while The Benxihu Colliery Disaster killed 1,549 people. The numbers don’t compare. Coal is inherently worse than Nuclear Energy regarding deaths from the worst incident. Even the second deadliest accident doesn’t compare. Take the Courrieres Coal Mine Disaster in France. This single event killed 1,099 people. Okay so what’s the “catch”. Well, these events did happen way before Chernobyl in 1986. The Benxihu Colliery Disaster took place in 1942 and the Courrieres Coal Mine Disaster occurred in 1906. Okay so, there’s a flaw in my argument… well you’re wrong again. In 1975, eleven years before Chernobyl, the Dhanbad Coal Mine Disaster killed 372 people. While not the worst coal plant disaster, the numbers still don’t compare.
So why has Nuclear energy received such a bad reputation? Most of the bad reputation stems from overreaction to Nuclear Energy incidents. Because governments evacuated people and the media took things out of proportion as usual, people began to fear Nuclear Energy. The better course of action would have been to encourage people to remain calm and collected, but everyone makes “mistakes”(“sly” practices). But there is hope for nuclear energy. New breakthroughs in Nuclear Fusion have opened possibilities for major improvement within the efficiency of nuclear plants. So, if you happen to ask me, I’d say nuclear energy has come a long way, and will be here to stay with improvements. Now it is not the make all, break all but rather a step in the right direction alongside a host of other things like reducing the grips of consumerism, and a mix of green energy. But, I’m still a high school junior so obviously take this with a tonne of salt, not a grain.
Great Resources to learn more about Nuclear Energy
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