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Inequality of income distribution
Corruption by politicians
Inequality of income distribution
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Recommended: Inequality of income distribution
Inequality of income, to many, is the seizing of opportunity efficiently, and an expected cause of popular economic systems. However, the inequality that is being exemplified in the world today is a result of a correlation with corruption. Corruption, as in seizing the opportunity for human greed.“corruption is a function of motivation and opportunity”(khagram). As inequality increases so does the motivation for corruption. The nature of this relationship between inequality and corruption can be seen through history, and where it is most prevalent.The U.S has seen its bouts of corruption within political systems, and in order to stop this vicious cycle, we need to be leaders of democratic nations. To analyze income inequality to its full extent, it is important to compare and contrast the noticeable differences in the 20th century to now between domestic and international inequalities. The different paths that income inequality and corruption take reveal that income inequality is not a result of capitalist or socialist economic policies, but from corruption.The U.S. and most of Eastern Europe at the current moment are some of the most unequal income wise and corruption. They both took very different paths to becoming industrialized countries. As industrialism was on the rise in the late 1700s in Western Europe, so did the opportunity to make money through a new- fashioned way. No more medieval feudalism and being born into the power and riches-it was a time of opportunity. For the most industrialized nations of that time period, the quality and standard of living rose, for new efficient inventions were being made and education was becoming cheaper and socialized. Specifically in the American industry, moguls were celebritized a... ... middle of paper ... ...tionary success, and to only repeat the constant failures and devastations of history is a mockery to our existence. Works Cited Chetwynd, Eric, Frances Chetwynd, and Bertram Spector. "Corruption and Poverty: A Review of Recent Literature." Management Systems International (2003): n. pag. Print. Hollingshead, Ann. "Income Inequality, Wealth, and Illicit Financial Flows in Asia." Financial Transparency Coalition. Financial Transparency Coalition, 1 Aug. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. Jong-Sung, Y., and S. Khagram. "A Comparative Study of Inequality and Corruption." American Sociological Review 70.3 (2005): 539. Print. Noah, Timothy. "Why We Can't Ignore Growing Income Inequality." Slate Magazine. The Slate Group, 16 Sept. 2010. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. Reich, Rob, and Debra Satz. "Occupy the Future." The Boston Review. Boston Review, 1 Dec. 2011. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
By the mid 20th century, the scale and prominence of corruption had increased dramatically, due to the widespread transition to vast urban cities and industrialized systems. The greed and desperation that resulted from the shift towards industrialism accelerated the growth of corruption in politics. Although the shift to industry was a necessary stepping stone in the development of the modern society existing today, it was accompanied by various consequences to American society and facilitated the corruption of government officials. The exploitation of fellow
Throughout the years, “ U.S income inequality has been increasing steadily since the 1970s and now has reached levels not seen since 1928” (Source A).
Both Sklar and the Economist offer suggestions to improve the inequality in America, but unfortunately the inequality continues to grow. Sklar’s use of detailed facts about the richest Americans, the poorest Americans and her discussion of the impact on society add clarity to the Economist’s argument that the American dream is broken due to the inequality in America. Until the American government starts to make changes, the problem of inequality will continue to grow.
The highest earning fifth of U.S. families earned 59.1% of all income, while the richest earned 88.9% of all wealth. A big gap between the rich and poor is often associated with low social mobility, which contradicts the American ideal of equal opportunity. Levels of income inequality are higher than they have been in almost a century, the top one percent has a share of the national income of over 20 percent (Wilhelm). There are a variety of factors that influence income inequality, a few of which will be discussed in this paper. Rising income inequality is caused by differences in life expectancy, rapidly increases in the incomes of the top 5 percent, social trends, and shifts in the global economy.
Scarborough, Joe. “Top 1% Took 95% of Gains Since 2009.” Tampa Bay Times. January 21, 2014. Web. March 11, 2014. In this article the authors shows how income inequality has been changing over the time. He also tries to emphasize how large this gap has become by comparing income and taxation of the top 1% with the rest of the nation.
"Wealth Inequality in the United States." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Apr. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Sutter, John. “What is income inequality, anyway?” CNN. 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
Bribery poses difficulties on moral grounds because it is incompatible with the principal of human equality and the fundamental right for individuals to be treated with equal respect and concern. For an institution to adhere to this principle, they must operate with fairness and impartiality: nobody should have access to influence that is not accessible to all. Bribery operates as part of a mechanism by which influence is only available ...
The development of a country depends generally on the work and values of its society. The image of a country can be severely damaged by certain actions and behavior of their citizens, like bribery. When a country is known as a corrupt nation, not only will the facade of the country be affected, but also the economy. Establishing measures to eradicate corruption are urgently necessary. Corruption has been around since the begging of time, but currently is more common in business, more specifically, international business. Although some organizations have been formed, and conventions have been signed in order to end it, corruption is still one of the mayor problems around the world. An ethical view might bring more insight to why bribery and corruption is not a moral act and why more severe measures should be taken into consideration.
Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.
Olken, Benjamin A., and Rohini Pande. "Corruption in Developing Countries." MIT. MIT-Harvard, Feb. 2012. Web. 20 May 2014.
Sanchez, Andrew. Corruption in India. publications. London: The London School of Economic and Political Science, 2012. Internet.
Montesh, M. (n.d.). Conceptualizing Corruption: Forms, Causes, Types and Consequences. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from
Corruption is prevalent in almost all administrative sectors of the government. Public administration lacks appropriate resources and is considerably performing weak due to corruption, politicization of bureaucracy and dominant patronage networks. (Bertelsmann Foundation, 2012). “Overall 66.7% of households experienced corruption in their interactions with different public service providers. An overwhelming 96.6% of households that interacted with law enforcement agencies experienced corruption. Land administration (52.7%) and judiciary (47.7%) are the next most corrupt sectors.” (Knox, 2009)
This essay will attempt to explore the relationship between the two from the definitions, causes, consequences and the solutions. Corruption can be defined as the abuse of public power for private gain. (World Bank, 2004) Corruption is attracting a lot of attention around the world, and is a growing international and regional concern. According to Corruption Around the world (Tanzi, 1998), in its end-of-year editorial on December 31, 1995, The Financial Times characterized 1995 as the year of corruption.