Global Economic Inequality.
The conditions of living have been vastly unequal between different countries in the world. Highlevels have been observed and have brought about intense debates, especially in the United States, where inequality has been on the rise in the last thirty years.Living conditions have changed over time within countries. In some, the changes have been dramatic, while in others, it has been slow. We all have an individual role contributing to the global changes, including how wealthy, healthy, or educated each of us. We cannot change where we were born, but we can try to work our way through in the places we were born through the choices we make and the hard work we put in. This paper seeks to analyze the global economic inequality challenge, and address the issues related to economic inequality.
Inequality in today’s world is a consequence of unequal progress in two centuries (Milanovic, 2016). In some places, there hasbeen an improvement in the way people live, but others have not improved. It is only realistic that everyone should be given a chance at a good life. The coming generations only havehope if the decisions we make at this moment are right and we make developments for everyone. Many people will find it unfair that only a few people are able to enjoy wealth, go to the best hospitals when they fall sick, while the rest live in poverty and ill-health. For such people, it is as result of unequal opportunities, which makes all that unfair.
In today’s inequality of opportunities globally, good and bad luck is what matters when it comes to ones living conditions. But when it comes to societal disparities and differences between countries, there is little an individual can do. The differences between countries may be racial differences, regional differences, gender differences, among others. Living conditions between countries can be viewed in different aspects; Health, Education, and Income.
Health: Children born in countries with weak health conditions have a sixty percent chance of not surviving than those born in countries with good health. In a continent like Africa, the statistics of children reaching their fifth birthday is quite low. One out of ten kids die before they get to five years. Whereas, in healthy countries like East Asia and Europe, only one child out of two hundred and fifty die before they are five years (Marten, e.t al 2014).
Education: Children learning in less developed countries tend to gain less in schools compared to those learning inmore developed countries. Countries like Europe and North-America are some of the countries with the best education access(Berg, 2016). Fifteen to twenty years of having a formal education is expected for the kids with school entrance age. For children in poorer countries of the same age, they can only hope to access education only for five years.
Income:Income inequality is the main challenge at this time. Over the decades, the gap between the poor and the rich has been widening in the advanced economies. Policymakers need to put more focus on the middle and the lower class because the inequalities in finances remain despite variation in other aspects reducing. According to the International Monetary Fund, it is necessary for income inequality to exists for sustainability and growth to take place. Further analysis has shown that it is needed for there to be income distribution for growth to occur too. Specifically, an increase in income share, let’s say by twenty percent of the upper class, decreases the GDP over a short period. In contrast, a twenty percent increase in income for the lower level increases the GDP. What this concludes in this is thatthe lower- and middle-class citizens matter most when it comes to growth in the GDP of a country and hence the economy at large (Pickett & Wilkinson, 2015).
After being neglected for long, economic inequality has gained interest in the media,through publications and articles. According to Thomas (2014), an economist, he tries to ask a question of what can be done about global inequality. From the growing literature, several things can be identified. One is that, significant changes have been observed in income distribution over the century. Before the first world war, income share in the United States was lower and at fifty percent in most European countries(Uslaner & Roths, 2016). Before the second world war, it had decreased to around thirty percent of the total income. After the second world war, inequality was quite reasonable, and it rose again in the early 1980s. Here, the rich gained momentum and left the lower-income earners behind. A vital difference arises though between wealth and income inequality. Wealth inequality has been observed to be higher than income throughout the century.The reason for this is, despite the bottom population earning income considerably, little or no wealth at all is held (Fuentes & Galasso 2014).
Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global economic downturn, that has affected the productivity of millions of people. Furthermore, tight laws and restrictions have been imposed by many governments in the world and the world health organization try to reduce the infection and bring the world back to the economic position it was before. The economic damage is already clearly visible, and this might probably be the most significant economic shock to appear in the past decades(Fernandes, 2020). Despite the government trying monetary and fiscal policies to support and to counter the economic downturn, the GDP in 2020 is bound to decrease, followed by a high recession. Most people have lost their jobs, investments have declined over the past few months, and most learners have taken a break; therefore, lasting scars are expected after the pandemic.
Nonetheless, there is a need for immediate action to recuperate health and economic consequences. For all countries, especially those that are developing, there is a need to boost their health systems and address the issue propelled by informality caused by applied reforms that have the capability of supporting sustainable and a robust growth eventually when the crisis abates.
References
Berg, G. A. (2016). Low-income students and the perpetuation of inequality: Higher education in America. Routledge.
Fernandes, N. (2020). Economic effects of coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) on the world economy. Available at SSRN 3557504.
Fuentes-Nieva, R., & Galasso, N. (2014). Working for the Few: Political capture and economic inequality. Oxfam.
Marten, R., McIntyre, D., Travassos, C., Shishkin, S., Longde, W., Reddy, S., & Vega, J. (2014). An assessment of progress towards universal health coverage in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS). The Lancet, 384(9960), 2164-2171.
Milanovic, B. (2016). Global inequality: A new approach for the age of globalization. Harvard University Press.
Pickett, K. E., & Wilkinson, R. G. (2015). Income inequality and health: a causal review. Social science & medicine, 128, 316-326.
Uslaner, E. M., & Rothstein, B. (2016). The historical roots of corruption: State building, economic inequality, and mass education. Comparative Politics, 48(2), 227-248.