On the afternoon of December 7 (4:30 pm), MindQuest will start with “your subjects”: Ideas and questions on subjects that has captured YOUR imagination - any “weird, unexplainable” things you have come across recently (not including Congress in Wash DC). That could be books, documentaries, articles, even movies, etc. that you think we should all know about. As we’ve said before, this does not require formal presentations (slide, speeches, etc.). So, put your thinking caps on!

Afterwards, the main subject of the event is “Social inequality.” We will try to accomplish three things:

• get an understanding of what we are talking about when we talk about inequality (in other words: How would you define it?)
• identify areas in our society that show structural inequality in opportunities or barriers that groups of citizens face (and other do not) . . . NOTE: We want this to be as fact based as possible - although that may be hard. We want to minimize opinions
• identify the drivers behind such inequalities, i.e. what are the root causes of such inequalities . . . NOTE: We do not want to get caught up in whether we think it’s perfectly fine or totally unacceptable that the identified inequalities exit; nor do we want to discuss what role the Federal or local governments should have in rectifying them, as that will typically end up in a purely political discussion.

This subject is huge - and we are prepared for the situation that we will NOT have enough time to cover what we want to cover - but then we will defer those part of the subject to the first meeting in January. Mark your calendar for January 4.

So, again, bring your ideas/questions/observations to the attention of the Forum and help keep it as lively and dynamic as it always has been.

Follow-Up

Torben’s presentation on “Social Inequality”.

Bob’s presentation on “Wealth Inequality”.