Income Inequality Research

The topic of economic inequality has interested me for a couple months now as I've become more exposed to it. I first began to understand this topic by watching different vlogbrothers videos on youtube such as "Is the American Dream Real?". These aided me in better understanding this topic and led me to start seeing the effects of this around me. It also taught me that income inequality is very complicated and that it is affected by several factors, one including healthcare which John Green talks about in the video "Bigger Pizzas: A Capitalist Case for Health Care Reform".

But, when I went to Mexico for spring break I realized that the effects of income inequality were much more evident than they are in the United States. Bacalar is the "pueblo" in which I spent my vacation. The word "pueblo" means town or village and I will be referring to Bacalar as that for the rest of my blog posts because it is more authentic to the setting than the english word is. In this pueblo the buildings were small, grungy, in need of being painted and had metal roofing. These homes made up the majority of the inland of the pueblo as the land there is cheap and can be afforded by the locals. On the coast of Bacalar, where the lagoon begins, the wealthy have their homes. I took footage of many of these homes and several of them were extravagant. There were several homes with more than two stories and that took up large spaces of land. Additionally, these houses had docks in which boats and jet skis were parked. These are luxuries that only the rich can afford. 

The purpose of my project is not to try and make the wealthy look bad. There is nothing wrong with having money and using it to buy things that you will enjoy. The purpose of my piece is to bring attention to the lifestyles of people on both sides of the economic scale and express that there needs to be something done to allow more people to be able to live on the coast and less in the pueblo. Unfortunately Mexico has been a country of income inequality for nearly all of its history. In 1811 Alexander Von Humbold wrote "Mexico is the country of inequality. Nowhere does there exist such a fearful difference in the distribution of fortune, civilization, cultivation of the soil, and population. …The architecture of the public and private edifices, the elegance of the furniture, the equipages, the luxury and dress of the women, the tone of society, all announce a refinement to which the nakedness, ignorance, and vulgarity of the lower people form the most striking contrast.". This quote can still be applied to the current state of Mexico as income inequality is a major problem. 

Humboldt, Alexander von (1811) Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, Vol.1, translation by John Black, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.

"John Green - Author of The Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, and An Abundance of Katherines." John Green RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

Krozer, Alice, and Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid. "Newsletters." World Economics Association. World Economics Association, 05 Nov. 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

Vlogbrothers. "Bigger Pizzas: A Capitalist Case for Health Care Reform." YouTube. YouTube, 03 Sept. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

Vlogbrothers. "Is the American Dream Real?" YouTube. YouTube, 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.