In Richard Wilkinson's Ted Talk, he pointed out what inequalities do to societies. The first graph he broke down was Gross National Income vs. Life expectancy. It’s an obvious point that has been around for years; if you make more money you tend to live longer. This is to be expected, however, because money is a resource that can solve a lot of problems, including health issues. On another graph, the data shows the index of health and social problems vs. Income inequality. The United States has the highest income inequality and the worse health and social problems. This is bad for our nation because it is a main cause of crime and violent acts. People that don't have enough money to sustain their everyday needs tend to turn to crime, which I turn pushed the gap between the wealthy and the poor even further. The third graph of data is rather shocking: Child well-being vs. Gross National Income per head. This shows how bad Income inequality in the United States really is. Even though our citizens make more money on average as a nation, we have low child well-being. I believe this is due to the middle and lower class families not being able to afford some of the luxuries that the upper class can, and this creates social problems like bullying and insecurity to take place. Social mobility is also directly related to income inequality. This shows that rich families kids tend to stay rich, and poor families kids tend to stay poor. This is a huge problem in the United States, because certain fathers can't leave their sons huge plots of land or Forbes 500 CEO positions.
Although I doubt that income inequality will change in the United States, we as a nation have to address the situation in order to keep our society from spiraling out of control. We cannot give income inequality the power to make or break us, and we need to take it more serious.
I can totally agree with you Braelin on all of the points you made in each graph. Especially when you was talking about the index of health and social problems vs. income inequality. Because like you said it result in more crime being done due to the fact that those who aren't fortunate can’t afford health and the things humans need to survive unlike the rich people. I don't think it is okay to say that money depicts how your future will be, because we are all humans we all deserve the right to live and survive on the same scale. Another point Richard Wilkinson said was that the more inequality you have the more people have to worry about other things. Specifically like: being more superior and inferior, status competition, how you’re seen and judged, and "social evaluation and anxiety". Which is the problem we are all facing now because of the differences in economic inequality. If we didn't have to worry about all of this our world as a whole could be a lot better than what it is right now just because then we would all be on the same page. But Wilkinson points out a good point when he says, "there's a small benefit in being in an equal society" meaning if we were to become this equal society no one would have a greater advantage over the other. so it makes me think when it comes to getting into certain schools you want to be in, jobs or have the things you want how will they determine who deserves It more.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your points wholeheartedly. Social inequality has always been a problem in the US and it will continue to be a problem unless we do something about. I really like the point you made about social mobility because it has always been a concern of mine. Children who are not privileged have to work extremely hard to achieve even the standard of living of the upper middle class. Many of us are not lucky enough to be born into wealth. Those of us who work hard and go to college start our lives in debt just for us to be able to live well. This is one of the main reasons why inequality of social class is important to me. The US must work to create a system that benefits everyone, not just the rich.
ReplyDelete