Addressing Inequality - Essay Example

Being controversial issues, inequity and inequality are closely connected as inequity is the result of inequality. Inequality indicates the distribution of resources across society giving an idea of the difference between what rich and poor people can earn, average income, and redistribution of the county’s income. Countries characterized by high levels of inequality have high levels of poverty showing the fact that the distribution and redistribution of the country’s resources are linked to the poverty issues (Inequality: what is it?). One of the countries with high level of inequality is the U.S. The gap between poor and rich is the widest since 1929 and has doubled in 21 years.

During the year (2001 and 2002) the number of poor rose by 1.7 million people. This imbalance is mostly caused by tax cuts which burden the poor more and more. There are complaints that the U.S. laws are unjust as they tolerate oppression of poor people and do not provide them minimum needs. In Alabama, for example, people who get low income pay higher rate of income tax than those who are wealthy. As an example may be taken the timber industry that has the ownership for 71 percent of the land and pays only 2 percent of the tax.

The paradox is that Americans are the richest nation but with the highest poverty rate (Lampman J.). Income inequality which is also among social issues of the U.S. is positively correlated with mental illness, low life expectancy, obesity, drug use, crime and teen pregnancy. Australia is also the country which has documented the growing gap between the poor and rich. The research shows that the most vulnerable Australians have been hardest hit by rising costs for health, education, and public transport services.

Pensioners, unemployed, low-income people and aged have faced the harshest rising changes in the living costs. It has also been stated that essential services are placed beyond the reach of the above-mentioned section of the population. Education and medicine have become the services which are sometimes almost inaccessible to many people. The example may be education costs which soared 200 percent above the inflation rate and medical services which are 180 percent above the inflation rate (Holland K.

, Zimmer E). Inequality in Australia is present in various spheres of life, for example, the average female wage is only 65% of the average wage of a male, and racism is strongly expressed against aboriginals. Inequality is also a characteristic of the polarization of income groups into poor and rich. (Social Inequality in Australia) Hungary is among the countries with low economic growth, decline in wages, and high rate of inflation that has resulted from severe measures, introduces by the government, to make changes in health, educations, and to cut back on the deficit of the government.

The above mentioned measures include co-payments in the sphere of health care, tuition at educational establishments. They were introduced in 2006 and caused social tension. Poverty of Hungarians is an extreme case of social inequalities. The number of poor is constantly growing. Vast job losses after 1990 caused rapid increase in inequalities and led to privatization and restructuring of wages and prices, and decline in the social transfers value. Declining income security has led to the number of health problems.

Hungarians marry late, have few children and in most cases later in life. Life expectancy is also unsatisfactory as citizens live sorter than it would be expected taking into account economic development indicators. One more problem which results from inequality is high death rate especially among certain social groups of people. Hungary is the country for which such social problems