Global Inequality And The Wealth Gap

[Fragrance1122]

The difference in wealth owned by rich and poor people is called the wealth gap.
A small part of the world’s population owns most of the global wealth, while the majority have very little financial security.

Inequality exists between countries, within countries, between urban and rural areas, and between skilled and unskilled workers. 

 Why does the wealth gap exist?
It is because of several factors: 
• Unequal access to education 
• Unequal access to healthcare 
• Differences in economic opportunities 
• Technology and automation 
• Tax and economic policies 
• Historical factors 

  A large wealth gap leads to:
• Higher poverty 
• Social and political instability 
• Migration from poorer regions to richer ones 

How can countries reduce inequality? 
And why is economic growth not reaching everyone equally? 

[SatoPrincess]

You listed the obvious problems, and imo the solutions aren’t as complicated as they make it seem. If a nation wants to build its economy, the first step is look at the countries that have a stable economy as a model. Their healthcare, access to quality education e.t.c.

My country is rich in oil yet one of the poorest nations in the world. So it’s not enough for a country to have resources or economic growths, ultimately it’s how the wealth is distributed to the people that matters. That includes access to healthcare, quality education and basically UN’s SDG goals.

[Mr_Brilliant$]

Your fingers are not equal. There is just a balance that everyone cannot be wealthy. The people that really know how to move money will interact with everyone that has equal money and add it to there's. Some individuals are just exceptional human. But at the sametime, while developing and growing, we should also keep in mind that growth is not same as distribution. Just as a few thet are wealthy and think that's what how everyone is.

[Smartvirus]

You listed the obvious problems, and imo the solutions aren’t as complicated as they make it seem. If a nation wants to build its economy, the first step is look at the countries that have a stable economy as a model. Their healthcare, access to quality education e.t.c.

My country is rich in oil yet one of the poorest nations in the world.

The development of a nation always comes down to good leadership. The resources might be available, natural and human resource but, once you haven’t got leaders that are visionary, leaders with the mind to build and make better, it’s always going to end in ruins.

Certainly there is always more to this than it meets the eyes, the politics that was instilled through colonization, puppet and puppet master leaderships and one of the worst of all is the national debt that remains a controlling factor on many nations. Where you’ll find certain nations having to sell their rights to generating revenue through using certain national assets as collateral.

The wealth gap is always going to increase and it would take a highly innovative leader to cut right between and narrow the gap.

[Opiate32]

Growth can create more money in an economy without creating equal opportunities to build wealth.
Two people can have similar source of income but if one has access to other different opportunities like investments while the other person just spend most of his income just trying to survive, their financial position will definitely become different with time and this is one major reason economic growth does not reach everyone equally.

If most people can only afford to consume while a small group has the ability to invest then the wealth gap can continue growing even when the economy itself is also expanding.
So I will say reducing inequality is not just about making everyone earn the same amount but should be about making it possible for more people to move from just surviving to building wealth.

[Decimetre]

The only thing that anyone can do including the government is to minimise the wealth gap is described by the OP. The world has various factors that cause everything to work the way they do. People's behaviour towards money is also a factor. Some are easy money makers and don't easily spend their money while others don't make money easily but easily spend them.  If everyone becomes very conscious of the way they treat the amount of money that comes into their possession, the wealth gap will close to a large extent but when expenditure is on the rise, this gap will widen.

Rich people are very money minded and they don't throw wealth around but the poor masses have various ways of wasting their resources and proving to be who they're not. The volume of money anyone has will go a long way to determine the level of health care they can access. Closing this gap simply means getting the poor to minimise spending and allowing free flow of resources to bother parties.

[viljy]

~
How can countries reduce inequality? 
And why is economic growth not reaching everyone equally? 

If you are truly interested in the answers to these questions, you should read Stiglitz’s book “The Great Divide: Uneven Societies and What We Can Do About Them,” and Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.” By the way, inequality is measured using the Gini coefficient. Inequality is measured by income level (for example, in Russia it is approximately 0.42) and by the concentration of wealth (for example, in Russia it is approximately 0.82).

[Ishicryptic]

Your fingers are not equal. There is just a balance that everyone cannot be wealthy. The people that really know how to move money will interact with everyone that has equal money and add it to there's. Some individuals are just exceptional human. But at the sametime, while developing and growing, we should also keep in mind that growth is not same as distribution. Just as a few thet are wealthy and think that's what how everyone is.

Indeed all fingers are not equal and no matter how developed a country is there will always be the poor among them but the irony is that a poor person in a developed country can be living more comfortably than a rich person in an undeveloped country. There is no equality in wealth distribution, some are born into wealthy families which means that they will not struggle to survive while others that are born into poor families have to work very hard to escape poverty. Wealth gap is very noticeable in poor countries because the number of poor people are too much due to their bad economies, a person who would be considered a middle class will be seen as very rich in a poor country, and this is why many people in poor countries are finding ways to migrate to rich economies where they will get a better life for themselves and their families. This is so because as there are different classes of people in a country so it is with countries, some are richer than others. We cannot stop inequality, it depends on every individuals to better themselves so that they can climb over to a higher class to live more comfortably.

[Fragrance1122]

~
How can countries reduce inequality? 
And why is economic growth not reaching everyone equally? 

If you are truly interested in the answers to these questions, you should read Stiglitz’s book “The Great Divide: Uneven Societies and What We Can Do About Them,” and Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.” By the way, inequality is measured using the Gini coefficient. Inequality is measured by income level (for example, in Russia it is approximately 0.42) and by the concentration of wealth (for example, in Russia it is approximately 0.82).

Thank you so much for the suggestion and for the compliment 🙏
I haven’t read those books yet, but I really appreciate you recommending “The Great Divide” by Stiglitz and “Capital in the 21st Century” by Piketty. I’ll definitely add them to my reading list.

[Taricoins]

The development of a nation always comes down to good leadership. The resources might be available, natural and human resource but, once you haven’t got leaders that are visionary, leaders with the mind to build and make better, it’s always going to end in ruins.

Certainly there is always more to this than it meets the eyes, the politics that was instilled through colonization, puppet and puppet master leaderships and one of the worst of all is the national debt that remains a controlling factor on many nations. Where you’ll find certain nations having to sell their rights to generating revenue through using certain national assets as collateral.

The wealth gap is always going to increase and it would take a highly innovative leader to cut right between and narrow the gap.

I really vibe with your reply, it's factual that excellent leadership is the key to economic development regardless of the natural resources endowed in that particular country, in fact in Africa I feel like the countries with high resources are the one's on the debt line or regressing in terms of development because of some external factors that plays a huge role in there affairs and its hard to break that connection, we have external government funded terrorism, increasing debt even after sales of those resources. It's wild and this years of inert captivity increases the wealth gap between countries especially the western countries.

[Fortify]

The difference in wealth owned by rich and poor people is called the wealth gap.
A small part of the world’s population owns most of the global wealth, while the majority have very little financial security.

Inequality exists between countries, within countries, between urban and rural areas, and between skilled and unskilled workers. 

How can countries reduce inequality? 
And why is economic growth not reaching everyone equally? 

I'm starting to think that capitalism is both a blessing and a curse, but it is at the root of all of these. If you picture that most countries came to accept capitalism as the best economic path compared to other options. Socialism and communism just plain doesn't work at the scale required, because they centralize power and this causes massive inefficiencies in the trading system over time. However the distinguishing factor that needs more attention is the different between so-called "free market" capitalism and well regulated capitalism.

Free market is pretty much a low regulation environment and a free for all which benefits corporation profits the most, while trying to avoid any expenses that come from supporting the "right" way to do things. For example if there are not laws around water use then a company would quite readily poison a river with discharge and pay nothing towards it - unless this is heavily restricted. That is why we need strong and well regulated capitalism, but always have to remember that corporations exist for decades and centuries, while some politicians might be gone after 4 years so don't have the same continuity or incentives. In raw capitalism the corporations continually undermine democratic laws, often designed with public interest and safety in mind, for their own greedy gains. More needs to be done to stamp out such corruption (like politicians moving into private sector jobs after making laws to benefit them) and lobbying by companies should be labelled what it is - legalized bribery. This is the cause of most problems we see today.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

 
• Migration from poorer regions to richer ones 

How can countries reduce inequality? 
And why is economic growth not reaching everyone equally? 

Speaking about migrating from a poorer region to richer place, the expense in those urban places is usually also high compared to how it is in the local areas where the expense there are much cheaper, just that opportunity is very limited there and income is lower too. For example, in major cities in my country, you can find great opportunities but the cost of accommodation, feeding, transportation and clothing can take more than half of the annual income the person is earning.

 Inequality among citizens can not be eliminated but the way it can be reduced with the help of the government is if they provide affordable access to housing. Just like the example I gave, accommodation problem is why some people don't even migrate to a much expensive places but if the government fix that, it can help reduce the gap between poor and rich but that not all, other things the government have to do are, to provide free or affordable education that even the poor can be able to attain same educational background as the rich, they should increase minimum wage, they should give some social benefits to everyone and not just the rich and lastly, they should create more jobs and give a fair employment opportunities to everyone both in rural and urban areas.

Sometimes too, these good opportunities are being given by the government and even some big companies gives the society some opportunities once in a while but because of corruption among the low level leaders (state government, local government, village/community leaders and chiefs), they prevent the opportunity from getting to the poor people that needed it most.

[demonica]

In reality, equality is almost impossible to happen. There's already a wide gap between the rich and the poor. Even the Ulta rich people are still working to be even more rich. Do you think they'll be okay with equality? Even those who are sitting in the government would want to make themselves rise to the top, for that power and money. Most of them only want the benefits from themselves. Only few politicians works for the people. So how can we even start a small step with equality, when there's hierarchy in everything?

If you want equality, those ultra rich would have to share a big part of their wealth to the lower class. Will they do that? Of course not. So it's really hard to even dreamt of having such economic equality. Also, economic growth doesn't equate to individuals living in the country to have wealth equality.

[Egii Nna]

How can countries reduce inequality? 
And why is economic growth not reaching everyone equally? 

Inequality can be reduce when every individual has equal access to everything ranging from education, healthcare and economic opportunity and if some individual are not treated differently because of their connections or backgrounds. And that has to do with the system the countries are using and also the leaders in the position to make every citizen equal. Mostly poor countries have the highest inequality rate because of the corruption and favoritism in the government.

Economic growth mostly reach people that have access to early informations, and those people are the people at the higher circles and that’s why only few people from poor backgrounds do make it big. Though the government can reduce inequality but still some people will still be more favored than others.

[tabas]

How can countries reduce inequality? 
And why is economic growth not reaching everyone equally? 

Wealth gap starts with the government. It depends on how good the governance is and how they are prioritizing the welfare of their people. For example in Switzerland, it's said that every 1 of 7 adults is a millionaire. And as for Norway, they have the government pension fund which is for their citizens. So the wealth that the country has got is distributed well to its people.

[RGBTC]

• Unequal access to education 
• Unequal access to healthcare 
• Differences in economic opportunities 
• Technology and automation 
• Tax and economic policies 
• Historical factors 

It is all part of the trap set by the system and the law. So, why seek solutions for equality when the status quo is essentially maintained by design? Modern slavery is more subtle than it was a decade ago. For the poor, hard work is viewed as a dedicated path to prosperity, yet they remain unaware that they are being exploited to enrich the wealthy.

[DPHOR]

 
• Migration from poorer regions to richer ones 

How can countries reduce inequality? 
And why is economic growth not reaching everyone equally? 

Speaking about migrating from a poorer region to richer place, the expense in those urban places is usually also high compared to how it is in the local areas where the expense there are much cheaper, just that opportunity is very limited there and income is lower too. For example, in major cities in my country, you can find great opportunities but the cost of accommodation, feeding, transportation and clothing can take more than half of the annual income the person is earning.

 Inequality among citizens can not be eliminated but the way it can be reduced with the help of the government is if they provide affordable access to housing. Just like the example I gave, accommodation problem is why some people don't even migrate to a much expensive places but if the government fix that, it can help reduce the gap between poor and rich but that not all, other things the government have to do are, to provide free or affordable education that even the poor can be able to attain same educational background as the rich, they should increase minimum wage, they should give some social benefits to everyone and not just the rich and lastly, they should create more jobs and give a fair employment opportunities to everyone both in rural and urban areas.

Sometimes too, these good opportunities are being given by the government and even some big companies gives the society some opportunities once in a while but because of corruption among the low level leaders (state government, local government, village/community leaders and chiefs), they prevent the opportunity from getting to the poor people that needed it most.

You can't truly emphasize on this as the entire system is being compromised especially when it's coming from the African countries, were corruption is extremely higher than expected. For corruption to be entirely eradicated is to stop those who usually compromises and are not strict with their core duties and place of work or assignments. Of course, in something like This those who are in power gets more stronger and benefits from it while those who are looking for their ways to get a better position or could be that finding it difficult to scale through.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

How can countries reduce inequality? 
And why is economic growth not reaching everyone equally?

Global inequality has always been a problem and it didn't just start recently and I don't think we can ever solve this problem as it's part of what makes the economy function. There has to be buyers and sellers for their to be an economy and also raw materials and since some regions are blessed with that then others will result to conflict that's happening presently on who gets to control the natural resources.

Countries that has tasted power won't want to lose it and they'll always oppress those without the military weapons to defend themselves and protect their natural resources. It's because of the slave to master mentality that we can't have an equal privilege as independent countries because we still rely on support form the big dogs as such they continue  to enrich themselves and continue to be at the top of the foodchain.

Colonization played a major role in this inequality problem and the wealth gap between the countries that were being colonized especially those in Africa says it all, as the saying goes "YOU CAN'T BE RICHER THAN YOUR MASTER", how can you when they still secretly control everything.

[BlackHatCoiner]

You forgot the money printer.

Search for "Cantillon effect". When central banks fire up the printer, the guys closest to it (banks, mega-corps, and politicians' insider trading portfolios) get the fresh cash before the resulting inflation hits. By the time the "economic growth" trickles down to the working class, a carton of eggs costs $8.

[ZAINmalik75]

Social inequality and wealth gap between the rich and the poor can never end, because world's wealth can never be distributed equally because of a lot of reasons, mostly the ones described by you in this thread. When people don't have the same opportunities for doing things such as gaining education because you can't get into the same institutions as the rich because you can't afford it, you won't have the same level of education as them, hence you won't have equal employment opportunities as well.

On the other hand, those who are rich, they won't have problems starting businesses and making money even if they don't get employment, but the poor won't have this option as well. And, a government cannot really fix this problem or help get the wealth distributed equally within the country because even if they make everything accessible for everyone, there will still be some people who would make more money than others.