Does Addiction Affect Income And Wealth

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How does struggling with addiction affect income and wealth? Definitions Addiction is a long-lasting disorder containing compulsive engagement of a behaviour or substance, often resulting in negative consequences. Addiction can come in many forms: substance addiction like alcohol and drugs that cause direct harm to health, and behavioural addiction, namely gambling, that leads to unhealthy lifestyles. There are different components of income and wealth. Earned income is awarded to individuals for their contributions or labour in the production process. Unearned income, on the other hand, is awarded to individuals for providing indirect contributions to the production process. Transfer income is any income that is transferred from one group …show more content…

Meanwhile, China and India have reduced their poverty levels, with over 1.1 billion people moving out of poverty since 1990. Around 1 in 20 Australians have an addiction problem. The cost of addiction in Australia was around $80.3B in 2021. Most addictions, such as drugs or gambling, lead to decreased productivity, which costs companies 48% of that amount. However, a decrease in productivity is unlikely to cause unemployment. Relative poverty leads to lack of quality education, which results in unemployment. Due to being unable to afford medicine, it also results in people in relative poverty having more health complications, which lowers life expectancies. In 2021, 12.6% Australians were reported to have lived in poverty. This is closer to the country with the highest poverty rate, Costa Rica, at 20.3%, than the country with the lowest, which is Czechia, at 5.6%. Income and wealth inequality refers to a gap in how much money people possess. Lower incomes often lead to more anti-social behaviour and increased incidences of crime. This has a negative impact on the non-material living standards of average Australians, which could also lead to social tension amongst people with average incomes and people with lower incomes. Visible homelessness is another result of low wealth, which may cause a decrease in tourism …show more content…

Women are more likely to use prescription opioids, which lead to substance addictions, whereas “men are more likely to misuse alcohol and marijuana”13. There is a difference between women and men struggling with addiction as women generally have lower income compared to men as a factor of gender inequality and therefore affects women living standards. Unemployment is another factor that impacts the occurrence of substance addictions and is a cause of income inequality. People employed were twice as likely as those who were unemployed to have exceeded the Australian guideline of alcohol consumption, being 32.0% compared to 16.8%. This implies employed people can also have alcohol addictions however the consequences would be less impacting compared to unemployed people. The National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2016 shows that unemployed people are over 3 times more likely to use methamphetamine and 1.5 times more likely to use marijuana, when compared with employed people. This shows that unemployment leads to drug consumption, which can quickly turn into addiction and continue to widen the income gap. As unemployment leads to addiction and vice versa, it can also affect both material and non-material living standards as having a SUD (Substance Use Disorder) reduces wealth, leads to poverty and ultimately

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