THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
Economic inequality can be said to be the gap between the rich and poor. Economic inequality typically refers to the unequalness among individuals and countries. It can also be referred to inequality among countries. It varies between people, historical periods, economic structures and systems; for example capitalist economy where people make their money themselves and the rich wants to become richer and are not willing to render any form of assistance to the poor, leaving them to live their lives (Wojciech Kopczuk, 2010). During the apartheid period in South Africa, the white people ruled the black people and made them their slaves. The black people are not attending the same school the white people go and the black are not allowed to work in an office owned by a white. The white people killed any black person that wanted to overthrow them and arrested some and sentenced the rest for life. The Apartheid policy was highly effective of achieving its goal of preferential treatment for whites as demonstrated in figure1
Apartheid and the People of South Africa
Blacks Whites
Population 19 million 4.5 million
Land Allocation 13 percent 57 percent
Share of National Income <20 percent 75 percent
Ratio of average earnings 1 14
Minimum taxable income 360 rands 750 rands
Doctors/population 1/44,000 1/400
Infant mortality rate 20%(urban)
40% (rural) 2.70%
Annual expenditure on education per people $45 $696
Teacher/pupil ratio 1/60 1/22
Table 1: Table showing Economic inequality in South Africa Figure (Anzovin , 1987)
From the table, the blacks in South Africa are many than the whites in the country, eighty-seven percent of the land allocation went to the whites and the remaining thirteen ...
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..., often lead to high levels of inequality, outcomes that are widely viewed as unfair." (Stilitz, 2012).
A job where there is high level of supply and also want to work for a lengthy period of time only some would be chosen thereby causing low wage to the job seekers. According to Hazlitt, Henry ‘’ Members may also receive higher wages through collective bargaining political influence, or corruption’’ (Hazlitt, 1988).
Future
The effects of economic inequality
The major effect of economic inequality is poverty. When people are cheated or deprived of their right as citizens they would suffer.
Different sources and scholars have tried to predict the future of economic inequality but have not come to a conclusion on the possible future. They are not sure of the future because they cannot tell when there would be another war that would make people become slaves.
Income inequality damages everything in a society from economic growth and democracy to minorities and education. Economic growth is limited during economic inequality because the majority of the gross national product is owned by the 1%, because of this the 99% does not have as much income leading to less spending which puts a limit on economic growth. Democracy is also strained as many wealthy families use their money to influence political parties to work on their half by making ‘donations’ of huge amounts. Minorities are effected as they do not have as many opportunities as whites do, especially males and often have higher poverty levels, they are even more restricted when their income is low because of the income inequality Even education is unobtainable for certain families because of the income inequality in the United States, because their income is limited and college tuition has increased dramatically over the last couple of decades they are unable to obtain a college education and are forced to work low skill level jobs. They may even have to drop out of high school to pursue a job for financial
Wealth inequality and income inequality are often mistaken as the same thing. Income inequality is the difference of yearly salary throughout the population.1 Wealth inequality is the difference of all assets within a population.2 The United States has a high degree of wealth distribution between rich and poor than any other majorly developed nation.3
Richard Wilkinson opened his Ted talk with the chilling statement, “I think the intuition that inequality is divisive and socially corrosive has been around since before the French Revolution” (Wilkinson). With this opening, he states that his Income Inequality Hypothesis is not new, but the way we can evaluate the evidence has changed. Now, we can look at the evidence behind this hypothesis and directly see what inequality does to our society. Wilkinson explains these dangers in his Income Inequality Hypothesis. Wilkinson’s Income Inequality Hypothesis states that societies with more equal distributions of incomes have better health, fewer social problems, including drug abuse, mental illness, teenage pregnancy, and obesity, etc., and are more cohesive than countries with a wider gap between the rich and poor.
There is a lot to learn about inequality. If you ask a sociologist about inequality they will tell you that the nature of society
America 's economy is dependent on the middle class. Slowly, the middle class is beginning to decrease. Soon enough there will be only the wealthy and the poor. Economic inequality is the gap between the upper class and the lower class. It is a problem that is growing everyday. Technology, education, race, gender, and globalization are the main causes of economic inequality. Each one of these causes contributes to the vicious cycle of economic inequality. The battle for our country 's financial wellbeing is upon us.
Economic inequality is ingrained in our society. Because of this fact, many would argue that “that’s just how it is,” but in reality this is not how a community is suppose to function. As Michael Sandel writes in his book Justice, “As inequality deepens, rich and poor live increasingly separate lives.” Sandel makes an excellent point. As economic divisions, such as the ones present in the United States, worsen, the classes diverge on every level. Wealthy people attend different schools, purchase luxury cars, and live in gated communities. Meanwhile, the poor live in squalor, use public transportation, and attend failing schools. Aside from the lack of a quality education making it harder to escape poverty, the poor are from birth at a disadvantage to those on the other side of the economic scale. The United States is not a land of guaranteed equality of result, that is...
Economic inequality and injustice come in the same hand. Poor people are more likely to experience inequality and injustice. The negative assumptions of poor people are created by the media and politicians. Promoting economic justice by offering people living in poverty some form of social support. Barbara Ehrenreich found in her experiment the workforce for low-wage was difficult. Conley talks about the different types of social inequalities and how they have been unsuccessful.
Social inequality refers to inter-relational processes in our society that has an adverse effect on limiting or harming a specific group’s social status, social class, and social circle. The way in which people behave, socially, through racist or sexist practices and other forms of discrimination, at the grass roots, gets down to affect the opportunities of the minorities, that the wealthy individuals can generate for on their own. This can be seen in almost all the levels of economy, ranging from state to the global economy.
Social inequality is the disparity and unequal distribution between different groups in a society. Inequalities can be detrimental to health as a result of lack of income, resources or opportunities (bbc.co.uk, 2017). The effects can harm the physical, mental and social well-being of individuals and also cause illness and disease.
...ment, income inequality will exist due to the rise of some economically successful people and the further development of factors that push people into poverty. Although it may not seem fair that there are rich people blowing money on impractical and meaningless things while people live in poverty, it’s a reality that the United States has experienced for centuries.
Income inequality is not necessarily harmful to our society because if the rich is getting richer they are able to invest more of their money to create business which will lead to more employment of people in the lower and middle class. A topic we also discussed in class was about the income mobility. The idea behind income mobility is that the poor does not always remain poor. People who were poor in the past are usually not poor later on in the future because the size of the economic pie increase too. People may think that the rise of income inequality is bad, but I do not really think it is as bad as many make it out to be. A solution should be put in place for a better distribution of the wealth, but I do not believe it should really be a concern because it seems to be something that will always exist. Even though income inequality exist or even if it is rising, people are better off today than they were before. The middle and poor class as discussed in class are getting a smaller peace of the pie, but it is larger that before, and with income mobility, the poor keep pushing forward regardless of the rich getting richer. Income inequality is a debated subjected, and I believe it will always be a debated subject. However in this class, so far, I have leaned that income inequality is not such as a bad thing as people make it sound. Income inequality has two side
Income inequality refers to the amount to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among the population. In the United States, income inequality has been growing strikingly for some thirty years. Income includes salaries, interest on a savings account, dividends from shares of stock, rent, and profits. According to the Census data, the middle
The unequal distribution of wealth is seen as a negative and ongoing problem and debate within American politics and society. There is a great deal of evidence to back up why wealth distribution is damaging the American ideals of life. It also carries inevitable and undetermined consequences for our nation. How resources are distributed within a country depends on where the resources were found. For example, numerous people will move to an area that is rich with resources in order in ensure job security. Just because a country is fruitful in a resource does not mean that that particular country is wealthy. In fact, the laborers are paid very minimal...
Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.
Apartheid consisted of a set of unequal laws that favored the whites (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). The Race Classification Act, which divided everyone into four race groups, whites, blacks, coloreds, and Indians were the first of many major laws (Evans, 8). Hundreds of thousands of black South Africans were forced to leave their homes and move into special reservations called “homelands” or Bantustans that were set up for them (Evans, 8). There were twenty-three million blacks and they were divided into nine tribal groups, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, North and South Sotho, Venda, Tsonga, Swansi, and South Ndebele, and each group were moved into a separate homeland (Evans, 8). Another major law was the Groups Area Act, which secluded the twenty-three million blacks to 14 percent of land, leaving 86 percent of the land for the 4.8 million (Evans, 9). Under apartheid laws a minority ...