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I Am President Snow

2013-12-06 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Economics (also: Pop culture) · mode: Personal essay · tags: civic or action cta

Hank argues that, unlike in The Hunger Games, our deeply unequal society has no villain: inequality comes from psychology, sociology, math and complacency, which makes him a kind of President Snow; since it is the path of least resistance and bad for everyone, we need structures to fight it.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The Hunger Games' inequitable society resembles ours; Suzanne Collins doesn't blame its participants (Katniss and Effie)

  • ★★★ Hank says the hardest thing to relate to in The Hunger Games is its unimaginably inequitable society, where some starve while others gorge and a table is worth more than a life, except we kind of live in that world. (hedged) — 00:00:13
  • ★★ Hank praises Suzanne Collins for showing a world much like ours and making us ask how anyone could live in it. — 00:00:36
  • ★★ Hank says Collins admirably doesn't blame the society's participants: Katniss and Effie are friends though Effie takes part in the culture of oppression, because Effie isn't evil. — 00:00:45

00:00:59 — No President Snow: inequality comes from human nature, psychology, sociology and math; the Netflix investment example

  • ★★★ Hank says our deeply unequal society is not the result of bad guys: there is no President Snow, or he is not a person; not corrupt politicians or psychopathic CEOs. — 00:01:03 · economic inequality
  • ★★★ Hank says inequality is caused by human nature, psychology, sociology and math, and you can't fight math. — 00:01:25 · economic inequality
  • ★★ Hank's example: a middle-class person invests $10,000 and a rich person $1,000,000 in Netflix; both double, so the rich person gains a million dollars, the other 10,000. (hypothetical) — 00:01:31

00:01:53 — Greed and societal structures also create inequality; not an easy problem

  • ★★ Hank says inequality is also created by greed and by societal structures: rich people helping and socializing with rich people makes them much richer than the poor. — 00:01:53 · economic inequality

00:02:23 — Complacency, not animosity: Hank's fancy dinners make him President Snow; we need structures against inequality

  • ★★★ Hank says inequality is not the result of animosity but of the status quo: complacence, not evil, the simplest path. — 00:02:23 · economic inequality

  • ★★★ Hank says he probably spent enough on fancy dinners with his wife this year (2013) to save other people's lives, but did the normal thing; not evil but complacent, that makes him President Snow. (hedged) — 00:02:28 · Katherine Green

    “That makes me President Snow.”

  • ★★★ Like Katniss with Effie, Hank doesn't hate himself for it, but because inequality is the path of least resistance we need structures to fight against it. — 00:02:53 · economic inequality

00:03:05 — Inequality is bad for the economy and happiness; recalibrate for equality personally and through government

  • ★★ Hank says inequality is bad not just for poor people but for the economy and for people's happiness. — 00:03:05 · economic inequality
  • ★★ Hank says there is a very strong correlation between a society's equality and its people's happiness, the rich included. — 00:03:11 · economic inequality
  • ★★★ Hank says we must fight inequality and recalibrate for equality, by helping people ourselves and by making the government do it. — 00:03:21 · economic inequality

00:03:32 — Harry Potter Alliance's Odds in Our Favor campaign; think about P4A and Hank's how-to video; sign-off and P4A clip

  • ★★ Hank suggests starting by signing up for the Harry Potter Alliance's Odds in Our Favor campaign. — 00:03:32
  • ★★ Hank says viewers should think about what they'll do for the Project for Awesome this year (2013); he posted a video on how to make a great P4A video on the P4A YouTube channel. — 00:03:35 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ In a closing clip from his P4A video, Hank says the Project for Awesome is in just 10 days. — 00:03:53 · Project for Awesome

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: economic inequality · President Snow · The Hunger Games (book series)

Also: Effie Trinket · Katherine Green · Katniss Everdeen · Netflix · Project for Awesome · status quo bias · The Harry Potter Alliance

Only in the description or credits: Suzanne Collins

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