Violence, obesity, children’s education, life expectancy, mental illness, teen births, trust- all are major problems for societies across the globe, and according to Wilkinson and Pickett, can be attributed to inequality. In their examination of developed countries, they found that inequality, rather than average income, is a far better indicator of wellbeing. Furthermore, the authors posited that nearly all problems that are more prevalent at the bottom of social hierarchies (many are aforementioned) are more common in unequal societies. They suggest that despite a nation’s apparent affluence, wealthy yet unequal nations are nonetheless “social failures” (18). Wilkinson and Pickett explore two of the most common assumptions about the social gradient that shows people at the bottom of social hierarchies suffer more problems- circumstances and individual tendencies.
I will try to show some specific examples about how governments and institution can affect countries economy. Lastly, I will briefly talk about the effects of geography which this is not directly related with capitalism but it can sometimes have great impact on poverty. According to Norberg (2003), since 1965, the average income of the world has doubled and wealth of poorest nations has increased more than the western countries
Instead it has led to the accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of a few developed economies. Therefore the gap between the elite and the underprivileged seems to be a never ending road, eventually leading to inequality. Environment Degradation The industrial revolution has changed the outlook of the economy. Industries are using natural resources by means of mining, drilling, etc. which puts a burden on the environment.
With less people working in the higher paying primary and secondary sectors the gap between the rich and the poor will be widening as more people will begin to work within the substantially lower paying tertiary sector, this will widen the gap between the rich and the poor as it means there will be more people working in lower paid jobs. Item 3B also raises the Marxist Argument that our Capitalist society is the underlying reason as to why there is inequality in our society. It could be argued that Capitalism is to blame for the widening gap between the rich and the poor as Capitalism believes that those who work hard within society , should be rewarded for their work whereas those who don't should not be rewarded as they have not worked hard enough to gain a reward. This type of economic system favours the rich, as the 'rich' people within society are seen to be the hardest working people, this is often not the case, but due to capitalistic ideologies it means that those who are poor tend to stay poor and those who are rich, get richer, meaning that the gap between the rich and the poor
In poorer countries, globalization brings the chance to sell their relatively low cost labor onto world markets. It brings the investment that creates jobs, and although those jobs pay less than their counterparts in rich economies, they represent a step up for people in recipient countries because they usually pay more than do the more traditional jobs available there. In addition to this, information via the internet is available to many people because of globalization. The case studies book mentions the specific example of the Darfur crisis. Because of globalization and the access to information, attention was able to be drawn to the cause and help put a stop to it.
It has always been difficult to move from middle class to upper class (although it has been done by some a few). The stagnant economy is putting the middle class at risk of sliding into the lower classes of poor. The structural-functional approach to this problem is at a macro level of analysis. Social stratification, which includes the middle class, is seen as a system of unequal rewards that benefits society as a whole. Social position reflects personal talents and abilities in a competitive economy.
A 2010 study considered it beneficial, while other recent studies consider it a growing social problem. While some inequality promotes investment, too much inequality is destructive. Statistical studies comparing inequality to year-over-year economic growth have been inconclusive; There are various numerical indices for measuring economic inequality. A prominent one is the Gini coefficient, but there are also many other methods. Measurement of inequality in the modern world A study entitled "Divided we Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising” by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reported its conclusions on the causes, consequences and policy implications for the ongoing intensification of the extremes of wealth and poverty across its 22 member nations .
According to Angie Mohr, there are 2 major effects that is caused by economic globalization on developing countries (Mohr, A n.d.). The first effect of economic globalization is wider disparity between the rich and the poor on developing countries. One of the evidence is the bigger gap of salaries & wages between the rich, who is obviously educated, and the poor, who struggles to get an education. According to Angie Mohr, those who are more educated will be paid more than those who has less to none education (Mohr, A n.d). This can be shown in Figure 1.1 from Education Pays 2013 that the higher the degree that a person graduated, the higher the after-tax income that he/she gets and the income difference between the professional degree graduates and less than high school diploma graduates is around US$ 57,000 which is a very big difference (Baum, Ma & Payea 2013).
How do they fair after the invasion that is foreign interest has risen in the recent past? The authors state that "As the Chindia Revolution spreads, the ranks of the poor gets smaller, not larger"(Meredith and Hoppough 396.) This is very important considering the hate major corporations are getting. The authors are trying to prove that globalization is not only good for the economy, but it is good for the people as well. The globalization of third world countries has become a hot-topic in many academic journals and well-respected magazines.
This gives us a clear comparison and to let us see who has the better GDP. GNP statistics reveal huge differences in wealth between nations. So this can be considered of worth. Reasons it can be considered of worth is that GGNP statistics indicate changes in a countries overall production and the direction of its economy, it can also measure how an economy is functioning, this is very useful when looking at wealth as you would be able to see which countries are thriving and the best to trade with, and which ones are not doing so good. Other reasons statistics are of meaning and worth are because it helps us to identify that the poorest countries actually have a declining GNP.