What Does Inequality Mean?

We live in a society that is very unequal, in a way that people get treated differently depending on their social class, race or gender. Social inequality means the situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status, social class or social circle. Clear boundaries in society are made that prevents

In “inequality for all”, a documentary presented and narrated by Robert Reich, Reich discusses what is happening in terms of the distribution of income and wealth in the US, why it is happening, and is it a problem. “Inequality for all” is directed by Jacob Kornbluth, it premiered in 2013, and it runs for 90 minutes. Reich studied at the University of Oxford in during the late 1960’s, where he befriended future president Bill Clinton. Subsequently, they kept in touch, and in 1993, when Clinton was elected president, he reached out to Reich, to be secretary of labor. Reich was in office for the following four years, and today he is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. For about three decades now, Reich announced that out of all developed countries, the US has the most unequal distribution of wealth, and that inequality is getting even greater in the US. In the documentary, the most compelling topics covered by Reich, are the changes that started happening in the late 1970’s, the fact that 42 percent of Americans born into poverty stay poor, and that nowadays, money controls politics.

The documentary film, “Inequality for All”, addresses the overall problems of income inequality within America. The documentary follows a former Labor secretary and all around American political economists, Robert Reich. Throughout the film Reich focusses on problems that many people already know about: the struggle that the middle class is facing, how the top 1% of society within America has seen a dramatic increase in income for themselves, education costs rising. His overall goal is to try and figure out what exactly Americas problem is within income inequality and how it can be fixed.

“The United States of America is not a third world country. . .except perhaps income inequality where we rank worse than the Ivory Coast, worse than Cameroon” (Inequality for All). A clip of Jon Stewart and his satire was featured during the opening minutes of the documentary Inequality for All. Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration, is the centerpiece of the film, describing and explaining the growing income inequality in the United States and the effect it has on the economy. The peak years in high income concentration in the top one percent were 1928 and 2007; horrible economic collapses followed in the years 1929 and 2008 (Inequality for All). The power and control of the most wealthy, affluent people in the United States has skyrocketed during the past few decades, creating speculation of what caused the 2008 recession. The highly concentrated wealth in the United States is leading to a few people owning most of the United States, a decrease in political power among the middle and lower classes, and low money circulation that is negatively affecting the economy.

Part of the reason why Americans do not exactly see inequality as an issue is because they have been conditioned their entire lives to believe that this is how life should be. Many have grown up being so accustomed to the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer that they fail to even think about the concept of inequality and, instead, blame the income disparities on work ethic rather than economic conditions. In India, people are not opposed to the caste system, even though there is essentially no social mobility, because they were born into it and have never known anything else. By comparing the social and economic statistics between many different countries, it allows individuals in a society to look past what they see as “normal”

Inequality is a social condition in which people don’t have equal access to different sources, services and positions in the society. Since the beginning of our existence we have seen inequality throughout the history of world. For example, we saw it through the Colonization process, when power defined race, and we have witnessed how the human being took advantage of this with native communities. For example, when the conquistadors came into the new discovered lands they felt in power because of somehow they had weapons, they felt superior, and they took advantage of the poor native, that all that wanted it was welcomed them. According to Jared Diamond, the roots of inequality in the division of the world within haves and have-nots was

When I hear the term inequality I think back to when blacks were being segregated by the whites. I would define inequality as different ethnic groups receiving different treatment than other groups do. For example, the Jim Crow laws restricted African-Americans. The video aligned with my earlier answer in some ways, like the race segment of the video,and sometimes if you are a different race you are offered lower education and health care. Also, the video went beyond race and went to gender and how women are sometimes treated unequally in businesses. The video also went into the inequality of the upper, middle, and lower class of society and how the higher you get the quality of education, health care, and services goes up. I think that the

In our definition of inequality we won’t limit ourselves to the poverty, if we take the simple example of an internet start up creators, who would see their revenues increase sharply thanks to the advancement of the technology among many other factors (ex of Zuckerberg who became billionaire after Facebook’s IPO) and this without having any impact on the revenues of the modest revenues population, one could argue that this is a positive thing: The welfare of some economic agents has increased without anyone seeing its situation deteriorate. But If you consider the well being of the economy, the position of a group can’t be analyzed independently of what is happening in the rest of the social body. Overly large differences between individuals

For example, many people have talents that make them of greater value to society than others. People may be stronger, more intelligent, taller, shorter, or good looking. This is evident in many places, such as the workplace, not everyone is capable of being a manager, but it takes someone with that special talent to be able to do that. All of these talents make a person unequal to others in the context of a specific talent. This meaning that although a special talent may make a person more valuable in the sense that they can do something, that someone else cannot. However, in the big picture, they are both equal because they are just being judged on a specific scale of equality. People are also unequal in the sense of their race. Not that one race is unequal to another, but in a sense that whatever race a person is born with can lead them to other opportunities than if that same person was another race. For example, on average a white man will earn almost $200 more a week, than a black man, both working full time jobs. This example also displays another inequality, financial

Inequality is when groups of people are subject to earning less of something than their counterparts. Economic inequality specifically, has been a problem in society for a while now, and many have not made any attempts at solving this issue. Economic inequality is indeed a danger for today's society.

While people have this thought of uniformity, in this present reality, balance is uncommon. Have you ever discovered two tigers that were a similar size? Same weight? With the same stripes? Not too normal, is it? While it's in our best nature to attempt to make individuals square with, they are all extraordinary and, by definition, unequal. Social imbalance is a direct result of the general public being sorted out by orders of class, race, and sex that intermediary access to assets and rights in ways that make their circulation unequal. It can manifest in an assortment of ways, similar to wage and wealth disparity, unequal access to a quality education, social assets, and differential treatment by the

Social inequality is defined as the set of unequal opportunities for different social classes or statuses for various individuals within a group or society. It usually refers to people of distinct genders, ages, and ethnicities. Many American’s have experienced some type of social inequality throughout their lifetime. America’s gaping inequality is seen everywhere from education to the workforce. Society tends to oversee inequality based on race, gender, and other social characteristics . Americans believe that racial discrimination no longer hinders or affects the advancement of minorities. Racial and ethnic actions are still being taken towards minorities in education, employment, housing, arrests, and many other issues of society. Social inequality and discrimination towards minorities is clear in everyday society. This can be seen by the way inequality is still persistent among the social classes. Among these classes formed by society, minorities tend to be one of the most affected. This is noticed by the way education remains segregated, the wage inequality, and the constant cycle of poverty. Many have used their voice to shine light on these issues, articles and authors such as “Social Inequality and Educational Disadvantage” by the Russel Sage Foundation argue the lack of equal assortment of resources between the rich and the poor is leaving them with the disparity of proper resources, and Jean Anyon’s “From Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work” in her

Inequality is perhaps the mother of all social issues. The distribution of wealth and other things is widely debated and covered in media, and many seek the find a ‘just’ way approaching the issue. Questions that are commonly considered are: How should society be structured to deal with inequality? Is some amount of inequality justifiable, and to what extent should it be allowed? John Rawls and Robert Nozick are two political philosophers who address this topic in very different ways. Throughout this paper, I will explain and analyze the arguments of Rawls and Nozick, and I will also argue against Nozick’s conception of a just society.

Poverty, Modernity and inequality are amongst the most common words of the English language. According to dictionary.com, poverty means "the condition of being poor", modernity means "the state of being modern" and inequality means "lack of equality." These three words are interrelated.

You can tell there is inequality in this world just simply based on the word “mankind”. I am sure almost everyone in the world has been impacted by some sort of inequality/ abuse of power in the world. Inequality can occur when a population of any kind does not maintain a common status, or could also be a difference in power between individuals. Inequality can take place anywhere at any time, and has been a major problem in the world today. Some people may not care about this, some people really express their feelings on this subject, but some people just simply don’t know much about the subject. Inequality can happen anywhere from your own home to globally all over the world.