How to make change to the society? Burst the bubble

Executive director of Independent Research Institute of Mongolia, sociologist Dolgion specializes in project management, strategy development, monitoring, evaluation, and capacity building. She is currently studying the increasing social stratification in Mongolia, its effect, and possible methods we can utilize as a community to prevent from its negative outcomes.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Today I want to start my talk

with a story of my own bubble.

When I say 'bubble', you might wonder
what is this and what I'm talking about.

Almost more than 20 years ago,
when I was eight years old,

I went to a local food market
with my mum and dad.

It was a very cold winter day.

We were driving our green Hyundai Accent
car, which was in trend at the time.

My parents went into the market to shop
for groceries while I stayed in the car.

I was sitting in the car
and listening to music, relaxing,

not even paying attention to the cold.

But there was a girl outside,
the same age as me.

She had no hat or gloves
in that freezing cold weather

and was holding a younger sibling
in those little hands.

At first, I didn't pay much attention.

I thought: "Okay, it's just
a poor girl standing there",

and kept enjoying
the music in the car.

But 20 minutes, 30 minutes passed.

She wasn't simply
standing there, doing nothing.

She was begging for money
from those who were passing by.

Most of the people who were passing
seemed to be annoyed by her

and walked faster to avoid interaction.

Looking at this, I suddenly
felt uncomfortable.

What has she done wrong

to be standing outside in the cold,

holding such heavy load on her tiny back.

What have I done to deserve
sitting in a warm car,

waiting for my parents to bring bags
full of food while listening to music.

What is the difference between us?

Why and how has this difference emerged?

I felt so bad at the time.

Looking back now, I think that

perhaps, my choice of becoming
a social researcher

was dedicated to understanding
this difference.

Even today, the story
of the bubble still continues.

Last year, I was standing
in a bank to transfer money

when I noticed this poster on the wall.

[Dear citizens, beware of theft!!!]

Looking at that poster,

I thought the bubble hasn't burst.

The poster said:

"Dear citizens, beware of theft!"

What this poster shows is that

we see this boy selling
magazines or gums

as though he was a criminal.

And people like us
with jobs and a decent life

who can afford to go to a cafe
for a cup of tea

should beware of these kids
and protect ourselves from them.

This poster wasn't only
put up in this bank,

but also in cafes, restaurants,
department stores and everywhere.

How many of you have passed
by these posters?

How many of us haven't noticed them?

So the first question arising from this is

why are we living in the kind of society
where a small boy is working at night,

doing hard labour
and being called a thief?

Second, why are we living in a society

where we have to be cautious of children?

I've tried this.

Most people answer
these questions in similar ways.

Because these kids' parents

weren't able to succeed in their lives,

so it's these kids' parents' fault.

Let's imagine one
of these parents' name is Turuu.

What we say about Turuu
is that he's lazy,

he likes to live on social welfare,
he drinks a lot,

he doesn't work hard enough,
also may be when he moved

from the countryside to the city

he didn't think through and so on.

People may think in different ways.

So by making these kinds of statements
we conclude that this person

is living in his own bubble, not depending
on other socio-economic conditions.

And because the individual is not
trying hard enough,

we conclude that it's his own
personal problem.

However, there are thousands, millions
and even billions of people in the world

who live in similar conditions as Turuu.

It would be wrong to assume
that this poverty exists

because individuals like Turuu
are not trying hard enough,

as if they wanted to live
in sub-standard conditions.

On the contrary, let's imagine
that Turuu is a very successful man,

and most of the members
of our society are doing well and

succeeding in their lives.

Here we conclude
that it's not just because Turuu is

a hard-worker and an achiever
that he's doing well.

Instead, our society is conducive
and has the right socio-economic

conditions to make people successful.

What this tells us is that we can't just
sit comfortably inside our own bubbles

and judge another person
as isolated from the society.

We shouldn't conclude
that the problem is just his own.

Since this phenomenon [poverty]
is too common in our society,

there should be something wrong
beyond what we can see.

Now, what is the current situation of
poverty and people like Turuu in Mongolia?

Is it similar to what we have imagined?

Today there are 634,000 people
living in poverty in Mongolia.

Poverty means not being able

to afford their basic needs
including food.

These are people who spend less than

140,000 MNT [60 USD]
per month, as of 2014.

Today, 20 percent of Mongolian
population is living in poverty.

In fact, it's more than 20 percent.

If we hypothetically increase
the existing poverty line

by 50,000 MNT [26 USD]
from 146,000 to 196,000 MNT,

then 40 percent of the population
would be classified as living in poverty.

That means on top of the 20 percent
who are currently classified as poor,

another 20 percent is living
in vulnerable conditions

where they might fall
into poverty easily.

As such in total 40 percent of us live
under vulnerable conditions today.

Moreover, nearly 80 percent

of Mongolian population spend

less than 400 thousand tugrugs
[212 USD] per month.

Only 20 percent spend
more than 400 thousand.

Those who spend more than 400 thousand
per month are less vulnerable to shocks

such as price increase and they have
more or less secure lives.

The remaining 80 percent
are people who might be affected

by various financial and personal crises.

Let's look at another statistics.

Today we say that our society
is free and equal,

everyone can work hard
and achieve what they deserve.

If we imagine our society as evenly
distributing income and expenses,

wealth distribution should look like this.

What do you think the current
situation is in Mongolia?

The top two ladders
of the society altogether

occupy 70 percent
of the total expenditure in Mongolia.

The remaining three ladders combined
occupy only 30 percent.

More importantly, the lowest
ladder occupies only seven percent.

We can see from this

to what extent has
income inequality increased.

So it shows that when we say
that Turuu is the one at fault,

he is the one who has problems,

we are thinking inside our bubble.

Now, we should ask
why so many people are poor,

why so much inequality has been
created in our society,

and whether our explanations
to these questions are done

inside or outside the bubble.

I want to tell you three
most common answers.

The first answer is that people are
unequal anyways

which is human nature.

But in contrast to this belief,
many studies worldwide and in Mongolia

show that people almost
naturally desire equality.

Nobody says I'm living in better or worse

conditions than that person.

Yet there is one condition
where we accept inequality.

This is when the notion
about fairness is considered.

Fairness.

In other words, today Turuu
worked less than me,

so he should earn less than me.

I worked harder than him,
so I should earn more than him.

It would be unfair if Turuu earns the same
as me even though he worked less than me.

That's unfair.

Unfortunately, our understanding
and interpretation about fairness

is not always fair itself.

Let me take a simple example.

In India, the caste system

allows most people to think
that it's fair that some people

should be wealthy just because
they are deemed to be born

from the head of the divinity,

whilst others should be poor because
they were born from the foot of divinity.

Is this fair? Not at all.

The second commonly used explanation

is that our country is poor,

we are barely surviving.

This is a wrong assumption.

Our country is now
a middle-income country.

Our economy has been growing steadily

for more than a decade.

Accordingly, the social welfare spending
has also been increasing.

Yet Turuu or those poor
40 percent of population

can't still benefit from this growth.

So despite economic growth we are left
with a significant portion of our society

living in or very close to poverty.

Let's see the next example.

Are poorer people indeed lazy

and not trying hard enough
in their lives?

To see whether it's true I want to take
an example of successful young people.

Not long ago, I've been reading
some articles.

Including those that were
also viral on Facebook.

We are all very proud of the young
people who graduated or studying

at Harvard or MIT, and share these posts.

They are all outstanding.

So quite a few of them were interviewed.

I've read all of them.

They were asked to share
the ingredients of their success.

The common ingredients were

"to dedicate yourself and work harder"

or "good knowledge of English".

We should be proud of these kids?

(Applause)

And now let's look
at the drivers of their success

from a broader societal perspective.

What we see here is that

there are many factors
behind their success.

At least these kids are healthy,

they are studying in private schools,

they don't need to look after
a sick father or mother,

they can afford to pay
the tuition fee and so on.

In other words, these kids
are already very close to success,

and with a little hard work they can climb
to seemingly high points on our ladder.

In contrast, those people
mentioned earlier

who make up around 60 - 70 percent of
the population at the bottom of the ladder

are not able to get to the same level
of the ladder if they work equally hard.

Because their social
barriers are very high

like the one we see here.

So one might be asking,
what are these barriers?

Why can't one work harder
and climb up the ladder?

There are so many factors.

For example, quality education
and health services.

Because these people don't have sufficient
education, don't have necessary skills.

Because they don't have skills,
they can't find job.

They don't have work
then they don't have salaries.

No salaries, no savings.

No savings, no investment
in their own life.

As such that person
is trapped into poverty.

But today we, the ones
standing at the top of the ladder

and inside our bubbles, are pointing down

to the people who are at the bottom
and telling them to work harder

as if we have ever worked ourselves out
of the situations they find themselves in.

The main reason poverty
and other social issues persist is

the big gap in society
and structural differences

and I'm trying to show
this situation through this picture.

Again, the story is not finished.

We've just criticised people
from inside our bubbles.

Our imagination about society is

created only within
our limited social boundary.

Looking at the results from this study,

our own trust and cooperation with others

is limited by our parents,
friends and relatives.

In other words, we are still
operating inside a bubble.

So what can we do to burst this bubble?

Rather than just sitting here
and complaining,

we should look for solutions.

There are two things that need to be done.

First, we need to remove
social barriers or, in other words,

narrow the gaps in this ladder,

so that those people at the bottom
can move up the ladder.

We need to make social reform.

But what is constraining this
social reform from happening is that we -

the young people
who are the future of Mongolia-

still remain in our bubbles, if we don't
burst them, this change will never happen.

Let's reduce the height of the ladder
with the two arrows pointing

and provide equal opportunity.

Next, let's burst our bubbles.

(Applause)

This is a picture of a bubble

where we blame or praise the individual

and imagine the individual as isolated
from the rest of the society.

We should become the young professionals
who don't blame the individual

but rather who try to see the underlying
reasons and conditions for problems

in a much broader way based on evidence,
research and using our intelligence.

Then why should we burst our bubble
and what change can this bring?

Like this picture
I'm showing you right here,

we want a society where everyone
has an equal opportunity to move up there

and reach success and a society
with adequate structure.

The basis of creating this kind of society
is that we ourselves leave our bubble.

All of us, to burst this bubble, like I
was trying to convince you earlier,

rather than seeing Turuu
or someone else's success

or failure through the matter
purely of personal effort,

we should learn to ask ourselves

do we have skills to see
the society as a whole?

Thank you.

(Applause)