Wealth and Inequality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Wealth and Inequality - Essay Example Racial, ethnic, religious and professional rivalries and jealousies have augmented class discrimination, and haves and haves-not observe enormous gulf between them. Hence, taking apposite measures immediately for the eradication of continuously increasing socioeconomic abyss appears to be the need of the hour, which could be performed by including the suppressed and oppressed stratum of society in nation-building programs, so that the society could be protected from becoming the prey to the severe anguish, hatred and bloodshed among the citizens for the future years to come. Before the French revolution, ninety-nine percent of the French population died of hunger and starvation, while remaining one expired due to over digestion. (Mahajan, 2002: 21) Thus, the authorities should move swiftly in order to introduce and implement socioeconomic schemes for the uplift of the poor and down-trodden masses in order to avoid the revolution the world has already observed in the form of French Re volution 1789, Iranian Revolution of 1979, and several other rebellions and revolts. The Paper Wealth serves as one of the most significant social phenomena, which helps the people get involved into the odds and ends of life by purchasing the commodities of their needs and choice, as well as by selling different commodities or offering their services against the wealth in order to keep the wolf from the door on the one hand, and for leading a comfortable and respectable life in society on the other. Since every human is directly or indirectly connected with financial activities, and strives in pursuit of earning more and more money and pecuniary gains, wealth has always been of vital importance in everyday individual and collective life. All that is because of the very reality that wealth decides and determines the status and position of individuals in a social hierarchy; it is therefore people seek professional education and learn technical skills, on the basis of which they work f rom dawn to dusk in various occupations in order to make both ends meet. However, they do not obtain the same amount of wealth according to the proportion of the efforts they make. Wealth is distributed less equally than labor income, total money income or consumption expenditure. While Gina coefficients in developed countries typically range between about 0.3 and 0.4 for income, they vary from about 0.5 to 0.9 for wealth. (Davies & Shamrocks, 1998) Thus, distribution of wealth, resources and opportunities has always been unjust, unequal and unfair since the known history of the social establishment. Inequality of wealth and opportunities is not confined to developing countries only. On the contrary, the developed western states are also undergoing the same problem within their social establishment. Both income inequality and the poverty headcount have risen over the past two decades. The increase is fairly widespread, affecting two-thirds of all countries. Income inequality has ris en significantly since 2000 in Canada, Germany, Norway, the United States, Italy, and Finland, and declined in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Greece and Australia. (OECD, 2008) Taking the example of the US society, it becomes crystal clear that on the one side, the wealthiest business tycoons and entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Sheldon Adelson and others are leading the affluent and luxurious life, and on the other side, one sixth of the total population is living under the UN determined poverty line. Not only this that all social classes have their valuable