The Detailed Research - Part 4

 As we move on from Section 3, let's delve into the second last part of the research! This is Section 4.

4. Causes and Consequences of Inequality.

Understanding the causes and consequences of inequality is essential for crafting effective policies to reduce it. Here's a deeper look at both aspects:

Causes of Inequality:

• Labour Market Dynamics: Changes in the labour market, such as automation and globalization, can lead to wage disparities. Technological advancements may favour those with skills in high demand, leaving others at a disadvantage.
• Education and Skills: Differences in access to quality education and skills development can perpetuate income disparities. Education is not only a pathway to higher income, but also a means of acquiring capabilities.
• Taxation Policies: Tax systems that favour the wealthy can exacerbate wealth inequality. Policies that reduce the tax burden on high-income individuals can contribute to wealth concentration.
• Inheritance and Wealth Accumulation: The transmission of wealth from one generation to another can lead to wealth concentration, as discussed by Thomas Piketty in his work. Inheritance and wealth accumulation are often overlooked drivers of inequality.

Consequences of Inequality:

• Health Disparities: As highlighted by Pickett and Wilkinson, income inequality is associated with health disparities. Individuals in more unequal societies tend to have worse health outcomes and higher mortality rates.
• Social Cohesion: High levels of inequality can erode social cohesion, trust, and civic engagement. This can lead to social unrest and hamper a nation's ability to address other social and economic issues.
• Economic Growth: Inequality can limit economic growth by reducing access to education and opportunities for a significant portion of the population. This results in underutilized human capital.

Addressing the causes of inequality typically requires a combination of policies, including education and skills development programs, progressive taxation, and wealth redistribution. Policymakers should also be mindful of the potential consequences of inequality on health, social cohesion, and economic growth when designing their strategies.

Global inequality in living conditions, it can be seen how inequality is seen in the different types of inequalities, and how although it has improved in 200 years, some of these inequalities should be much, much lower than at these current values. Source

Source — Access to affordable quality care: Possible hurdles and related inequalities scenarios. Note: Figures simplistically portray people of higher (woman) or lower (man) socio-economic circumstances, and their size represents the relative likelihood they have of facing a result rather than another when accessing the health care system

This is the Global Market Income Distribution in 2020, when compared to the one in 1980, the inequality is a lot greater, where the richest if countries being high as skyscrapers (hence its name). Source

Global wealth inequality, 1980–2050: China, Europe and the US. Source

Three effects of inequality on disadvantaged groups.

Framework for investigating why some countries punch above or below their economic weight in terms of life expectancy. Source

Health, risk factors and access to the health system: The odds are stacked in favour of the better-off. Note: Each side of the scale represents the nexus of the relationships between risk factors, health, and access to the health system, which reinforce one another positively (right side of the scale) or negatively (left). People of lower (higher) socio-economic standing are more likely to land on the left (right) side of the scale. The size of the cogwheels indicates the value of the indicators used to measure these domains for the two population groups. Health systems and policies can contribute to redressing the balance.

Before ending this section off, we hope that you've learnt something from this, and these graphs showcase the image well. We hope it answered the main question well, and don't forget to like and share this blogpost. See you in Section 5, the last section!

— RL