Should we be More Concerned by the Gap in Wealth between Nations, or the Growing Gap within Many Nations? Are the Causes of These Two Types of Inequalities are the Same?
Should we be More Concerned by the Gap in Wealth between Nations, or the Growing Gap within Many Nations?
The issue and the problem of inequality between nations is crucial and important in the 21st century society. The gap between rich and poor people is quite high in many countries. Despite that thanks to globalisation and openness to the foreign investment, more and more countries tend to grow economically such as China, India or Vietnam, the poverty rate in the 21st century is still more than fifty percent. According to Scott Sernau, the author of the textbook, the main drives of the gap in wealth are “Greedy manipulative monarchs, and corporations that might seek the great monopolies” (Sernau, 2012, p. 23). These factors matter for the gap in wealth between nations, as well as within nations. In my opinion, the humanity should be more concerned in the growing gap within many nations. According to the information from the textbook, it is clearly seen that nowadays the gap in wealth is existed not just between nations, like it was more than ten years ago (Sernau, 2012, p. 22). Long time ago the gap in wealth between nations existed between such countries as USSR and the United States or Europe. While the US and Europe had capitalist systems of the government and promoted the welfare of its nations via tax programs and other things, USSR used to have a communist system of the government where all people were treated equally in all aspects of life, both financially and socially. As a result, the wealth between nations did exist, as USSR citizen ns were all equal but poor, while citizens of the USA and Western European countries tended to have more flexibility in earning their money. However, nowadays the situation changed. Former communist nations such as Russia, states of former Soviet Union such as Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, Vietnam and China are developing quite fast, and the economic development gives quite a lot of new opportunities for its citizens to improve their lives. As a result, the gap between rich and poor increased within many nations, regardless if it is in China or in Western European countries such as France or Germany. The growing gap between many nations is quite an important problem that the society is facing nowadays. First of all, the governments of all nations should have an effective tax income procedures such as Scandinavian nations of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, or Canada. Secondly, not only the issue of an effective government with transparency should be considered and evaluated, but also the issue of multinational and global corporations who expand internationally very rapidly should be evaluated, since from one point of view, multinationals are able to benefit other people, including poor people in order to benefit themselves and to increase the profits.
Are the Causes of These Two Types of Inequalities are the Same?
The causes of these two types of inequalities seem to be the same, but in fact, according to my opinion and research, are not. The cause of inequality of the growing gap within many nations is an outcome of globalisation that affects the economy not in the best way sometimes (Joyce, 2008). Since globalisation came to emerging countries such as India, Latin American countries and China, most small business were left behind leading people poor behind. The gap in wealth between nations, especially Capitalist nations however always existed from ancient times, starting from ancient Greece and medieval Europe. Nowadays, the gap keeps increasing in both ways, both between and within many nations. In order to manage the gap efficiently and effectively, according to the official source of information, “there is a reform agenda to reduce income disparities. It is about attacking cronyism and investing in the young” (Beddoes, 2012). You call it a “True Progressivism” (Beddoes, 2012).
References
Joyce, J. (2008, May). Globalization and Inequality among Nations. Retrieved February 4, 2016,
inequal2.pdf
Beddoes, Z. M. (2012, October 13). For richer, for poorer. Retrieved February 03, 2016, from
http://www.economist.com/node/21564414
Sernau, S. (2012). Global problems: The search for equity, peace, and sustainability. Boston:
Pearson. 22-23.
