[Website] Visualizing Wealth Inequality And Mass Incarceration

When we’re talking about systemic issues, we’re talking about large numbers. Yet our ability to imagine large numbers of things is extremely limited. So our brains can’t comprehend the scale of systemic issues. This causes us to be indifferent towards the suffering of large numbers of people. It’s called mass numbing. The following quote eloquently captures the problem:

“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”

Yesterday, I came across two websites that help combat mass numbing. One is about wealth inequality and the other addresses mass incarceration. Both are U.S.-centric. Their data is slightly outdated, but they do a good job in pointing out the problems in an understandable way. I found both sites entertaining, informative, and moving. Please share them.