Use these question sets to reflect on your reading and discuss the ideas presented by Dr. Payne.

Reading Schedule

• Week 1: Intro - Chapter 2
• Week 2: Chapter 3 - Chapter 5
• Week 3: Chapter 6 and Chapter 7
• Week 4: Chapter 8 and Chapter 9

Week 1

Introduction

1. Other than flights, what is a microcosm that showcases inequality affecting our behavior? (pg. 1-3) 

2. How does our view of the economically advantaged, top 5% change how we experience the world? (pg. 8-9) 

Chapter 1: Lunch Lady Economics — Why Feeling Poor Hurts Like Being Poor

1. Share a moment you realized you were the “other” demographic or different from others in a group based on your socio-economic status or other factor. (pg. 10) 

2. Share a time you negatively compared yourself to someone else based on an economic factor. What might you not have known about this person’s display of “wealth?" 

3. When you were in high school, what objects were the “status” symbols? Did brand matter? (pg. 17-22) 

4. How do you think society might be different if we did not care so much about status? 

• Would people behave differently? Treat each other differently? 

• How would our priorities shift? 

Chapter 2: Relatively Easy — Why We Can't Stop Comparing Ourselves to Others

1. When the federal government used her index for measuring the poverty line, Mollie Orshansky tried to add in an extra $0.15 a day to count for occasional treats for the kids or a cup of coffee. The change was vetoed. What are ways that you see lower income people or people in poverty denied that “little extra” for enjoyment or even necessity? (pg. 32) 

2. The poverty line for a family of four is the same no matter where they live. What should we account for when we think of economic status, location, and what people need to get by? (pg. 33) 

3. Judging social class is easy for most people. What are some indicators you look for when determining someone’s social class? These can be material or not. (pg. 39-40) 

4. Relative comparison might give the most satisfaction. What are things you wanted to have so that you measured up to others, but in the end, you didn’t get that item? Why did you do this? Do you regret it? (pg. 47) 

5. What are some things you’ve done or bought to give into relative comparison? Was it worth it? (pg. 47) 

6. Is there a “look” to inequality? How would you describe it? What places come to mind? (pg. 52-54) 

7. What is something you feel that statistics misrepresent, especially about inequality? (pg. 53) 

Week 2

Chapter 3: Poor Logic — Inequality Has a Logic All of Its Own

1. What are some examples of the fundamental attribution error? How are these harmful? (pg. 60-61) 

2. Share examples of times when you have had to quickly adapt. How did you cope? What challenges did you face? 

3. Which do you think is more harmful to individuals? To society? Slow solutions/progress during a difficult time or having unstable systems? (pg. 66-67) 

Chapter 4: The Right, the Left, and the Ladder — How Inequality Divides Our Politics

1. What are some existing hierarchies in our community (campus, local, state)? Society?  

2. The concept of “accessibility” can impact how we perceive situations around us. For example, you might be more likely to think negatively of an unhoused person you pass on the street if you see them after reading an article about an unhoused person murdering someone (pg. 90-91). What are some situations where you may have been primed to think of something in a more positive or negative light based on accessibility?  

3. What are some events you strongly remember along with or because of the emotions you associate with them? (pg. 94-95) 

4. What are some products or behaviors you associate with conservatives, liberals, or other identity groups? Do you think these associations are always accurate? (pg. 96-102) 

Chapter 5: Long Lives and Tall Tombstones — Inequality is a Matter of Life and Death

1. What are some things you associate with inequality or wealth shown in death? (pg. 113-118) 

2. What professions do you associate with longer lives or careers? Shorter ones? What do you attribute these associations to? (pg. 116) 

3. What are physical and mental reactions you feel in relation to stress? How do you think they impact you in the long term? (pg. 121-128) 

4. Humans have the unique ability to “sense a threat that is not actually physically present.” What are some persistent worries of someone facing income inequality?  (pg. 126-128) 

Week 3

Chapter 6: God, Conspiracies, and the Language of Angels — Why People Believe What They Need to Believe

1. What are justifications people have given you for conspiracy theories? What was their reason for believing in them? (pg. 141-142) 

2. An earlier chapter discussed how people assume unhoused and low-income people must have done something to deserve their situation. In this chapter, Payne discusses how these assumptions help people confirm or construct their worldviews. What are other things people believe to be inherently good or bad because they need it to fit within their understanding of the world? (pg. 144-145) 

3. What are other things or systems people believe in when they feel powerless? Why do you think people choose to believe in these things? The book mentions gods, conspiracy theories, patterns in random things and a perfect world order. (pg. 140-147) 

4. Is there harm in using religion/the supernatural for comfort? Why or why not? (pg. 146) 

5. Do you think there are class differences in views or practices of religion? What are some of these differences and why do you think they exist? (pg. 151-152) 

Chapter 7: Inequality in Black and White — The Dangerous Dance of Racial and

Economic Inequality

1. What does a “reasonable person” mean to you? Do you think it’s fair to use this as a standard in the justice system? (pg. 164-167) 

2. What is an example of a well-intentioned person presenting themselves as “not racist” but actually harming one or more minority communities? (pg. 167) 

3. Is implicit bias more prevalent today than explicit bigotry? (pg. 168-169) 

4. Are there social programs that many Americans affiliate with a certain race, whether or not that belief is correct? (pg. 170-172) 

5. When discussing race, Payne only mentions white, Black and Hispanic people, using only the average statistics for the groups. Who did he leave out? What challenges do those groups face? 

6. In what ways is Payne’s presentation and omission of certain groups harmful? 

Week 4

Chapter 8: The Corporate Ladder — Why Fair Pay Signals Fair Play

1. Have you had a service job? What are some ways people tend to underestimate the stress of these jobs? (pg. 184)  

2. To what degree do you see pay inequality breeding resentment? How have you seen it hurt camaraderie? (pg. 187-189) 

3. What emotions come from pay inequalities in the workplace? How does pay inequality make lower-paid employees feel and behave in the workplace? (pg. 187-192) 

4. How does pay inequality make higher-paid employees and management feel and behave in the workplace? (pg. 191-192) 

5. Do you agree that ignorance truly bliss with income inequality and people’s feelings? Why or why not? (pg. 193-194) 

6. What are some ways, besides pay, that management incentivizes employees? How might they be implemented if they are not already in place? 

Chapter 9: The Art of Living Vertically — Flatter Ladders, Comparing with Care, and the Things that Matter Most

1. How much do your connections/network factor into opportunity? (pg. 198) 

2. When someone does have the connection, opportunity and/or means to leave disadvantaged conditions, what factors into whether they leave or stay home? (pg. 198) 

3. “Utopian ideals have a way of becoming dystopian realities.” Even if you like or are for certain methods of reducing income inequality, do you have any fears regarding the execution? (pg. 208) 

4. How do we view money in fictional worlds? How do our beliefs about income translate in fictional worlds? (pg. 208) 

5. What are the current status symbols you can notice from someone’s appearance? What do you think those symbols tell you about that person? (pg. 209-210) 

6. What are some things you plan to do differently or are thinking about differently after reading this book?