Sneak Peek: Wed Feb 28, 2024 (Patreon)

Behold, a map of income inequality by nation, measured using the Gini coefficient. What is the Gini coefficient, and what does it have to do with cities? That's what today's video is all about.

What you'll notice in this map that the US has relatively high inequality, especially for an economically advanced nation -- all you really have to do is compare with Canada. Not really a surprise, given our political/economic system. But, what you'll find is, cities and metro areas tend to have even more extreme inequality than nations as a whole -- they're almost always where you'll find our wealthiest AND our poorest communities, usually living in VERY different conditions.

I won't spoil the video further. Some of you who are on Nebula have already seen it (it's been up since Saturday, and next week's is probably going up Friday!), so please avoid spoilers down in the comments until after release on YouTube today. But -- what are your thoughts on how income inequality affects YOUR city? A certain amount of inequality is healthy, I think. Some people would say it's absolutely critical to any culture of innovation (but I wouldn't get carried away with that). I discuss some of my thoughts on this in the video, but I want to hear yours. What are the good or bad ways inequality manifests where you live? Are there things your city or metro area does to mitigate the impacts of inequality?