Introduction
Income inequality is defined as the imbalanced distribution of the total economic income among families or persons. Furthermore, they pointed out that some of the factors which cause income inequality are: the differences in ability or skills, the level of education and training for individuals, discrimination in the community, difference in tastes, and risks involved be it in business or the choices people make in life. Generally I can say that these factors have proven to be very useful giving explanation as to why income inequality exists. Although it is almost unfeasible to measure tastes and preferences of an individual which really matters when we tackle the issue of income inequality, it is on the other hand very easy to assess the level of someone’s education and the extent of discrimination in the society today. From this I can say that as we are today or how it is going to be in future we should care about income inequality and try to minimize this issue since it is still growing (Ashford, 2005).
Contributing Factors
According to Garnett Picot and John Myles, there are some factors which are a major contribution to income inequality but they are often ignored. They include: free trade and foreign trade, racism, sexism, wellbeing, and taxes imposed on citizens and organizations. In my strong opinion I believed that these aspects are the main pillars when it comes to what brings the inequality on the income we generate today. Global income inequality is evidently bigger in currently than how it was in the past. Currently it is said that the richest 1% of the populace in the world obtain as much as 57% of what the bottom receives. In a research conducted it showed that the ratio existing between the average returns of the top 5% in the globe to the bottom 5% income earners did increase from 78 to 1 that was in 1988 to 114 to 1 by 1993 (Deding, 2009) from this it is apparent that this issue is increasing. I robustly condemn the issue of income inequality since it degrades the value of life.
It clearly shows that sexism and racism are presented in our economy as an outline for lower wages when the work done is equal. According to Richard Freeman we should be all be troubled by rising of income inequality. For him to say that it shows that lowering incomes for most employees and this on the other hand leads to the rising of income inequality, threatens any nation’s ideals of political egalitarianism and collective citizenship. This issue of income inequality ha been left unattended and I can say that the new unequal distribution of income threatens us with a society where those who are successful considering the upper class and those on the upper-middle classes carry on with their lives primarily very dissimilar from those who are on the working class level and the underprivileged (Hailu, 2009)). Economy in such a manner may function well for considerable numbers, but I can say for sure it will not meet any nation’s democratic model of shooting up the well-being of the typical or an ordinary citizen (Bradley, 2008).
Current Findings
On the current findings putting the field of public health in mind, some of the scientists believe that, in which I concur, the growing inequality truly leads to more health difficulties in the general population (Lenon, 2005)). In addition, a situation where the health of citizens or employees is not taken care of properly or it is in jeopardy no doubt that the workers’ efficiency reduces and when this happens there are consequences which include: the increase in the national expenditure regarding the issue of health, the diversion of resources away from fruitful activities like saving and investing.
According to Sir Michael Marmot, who is a professor of epidemiology and public health stationed at the University College London and also he is the director of its International Institute for Society and Health, who has spent most of his valuable career studying the connection between inequality and public health around the globe. In a very much revealed paper which was published in May 2008 in The Journal of the American Medical Association, him and three other colleagues studied health issue in the United States and comparing them with Britain, it was found that at a range of points all through the social chain of command, there was more considerable illness in the United States than it is in Britain. Sir Michael in theory states that the reason for the disproportion was as a result of the greater income inequalities existing in the United States and heavier pressure as a result of them.
Issues Resulting from Income Inequality
Another problem apart from public health is how income inequality breeds higher corruption levels. This is very true especially when it comes to true democracies and this is where political power and wealth can be easily switched over. In a study of 129 countries which was conducted by Jong-Sung You who is a graduate student at Harvard in the Kennedy School of Government and Sanjeev Khagram who is a professor of public affairs stationed at the University of Washington in Seattle, it showed that corruption, with no doubt, can hurt the growth of a nation by plummeting the efficient allotment of private and public resources by heavily disfiguring investment which in turn ends up creating the inflation of asset prices. All this is attributed to income inequality (VanBromwell, 2005).
Unimpeded income inequality may reciprocate and create even more inequality. A professor of economics at Harvard says simultaneously as those who are rich and continue to become richer in turn acquiring greater political authority, they may start to support policies which favor themselves and for that they become even more affluent at the expense of other citizens. In a paper which was published by Professor Frank Amiel,, said that if as it is right now, the wealthy can influence outcomes of politics through lobbying tricks or through membership in some singular interest groups as they call them or let’s say special groups, then for sure there would be more inequality which could lead to less relocation of resource rather than more distribution of resources. For instance, in the United States there is clear evidence that this unequal distribution of resources as a result of unfavorable policies has been occurring (Richmond, 2000). Policies reducing the estate tax and cutting the top income and also the reduction of the benefit of capital gains tax rates. For this we cannot dispute the fact that the gap between the poor and the rich is widening (Zephy, 2003).
Societal Consequence of Income inequality
In many cities around the world, the effects resulting from inequality for instance in Canada in 1998 the mayor affirmed homelessness as a national disaster (Lenon, 2000), who the dispossessed are and what actions should be taken to improve this crisis which is currently the issue of much community attention. Conventionally, homelessness has been viewed as a male experience but now it’s more in women especially single mothers. This is just an example of the effects of income inequality. Other effects include health degradation social exclusion which is basically being barred from making decisions in the society (Richmond, 2000)
Conclusion
Another problem that the inequality brings is reducing the moral values of humankind; our society is simply heading to the era of slavery due to this increasing inequality of the income we earn today. For us to be able to harmonize our income is for instance we try to put together policies other than trying to redistribute income but majorly focusing on how to reverse the rising income inequality by first determining the major cause of its rise. The rising income inequality is as a result of a multiplicity of causes. Conjectured causes includes things such as immigration, new technology, foreign trade, high taxes, government having excess regulation, declining of unionism, the wealth being distributed unequally, all this should be tackled for a better life tomorrow.
References
Ashford, H. (2005). Income inequality. Web.
Bradley, M. (2008). Effects of Global Inequality. Web.
Deding, M. (2009). Immigration and Income Inequality. Web.
Hailu,Y. (2009). An Econometric Analysis of the links between income inequality and Poverty. Web.
Lenon, S. (2005). Living on the Edge: Women, Poverty and Homelessness in Canada. Web.
Richmond, A. (2000). Social Exclusion: Belonging and not Belonging in the World System. Web.
VanBromwell, C. (2005). Societal Rules. Web.
Zephy, V. (2003). Microeconomics and Income. Web.