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Income inequality UK Essay
Income inequality UK Essay
Income inequality UK Essay
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Inequality –The UK has a very high level of income inequality compared to other developed countries. Households in the bottom 10% of the population have on average a net income of £9,277. The top 10% have net incomes over nine times that (£83,897). As can be seen from the graph, income inequality is much starker at the top of the income scale, with the group with the 9th highest incomes making only 60% of the top 10%’s income. Inequality is much higher amongst original income than net income with the poorest 10% having on average an original income of £4,467 whilst the top 10% have an original income 24 times larger (£107,597) (Equalitytrust.org.uk, 2015) (Equalitytrust.org.uk, 2015) The graph shows how income is shared amongst households.
Let's take it back to the past in regards to wealth distribution in this country. The fact is that the economy boomed from the end of WWII into the 1970's. “Incomes grew rapidly and at roughly the same rate up and down the income ladder, roughly doubling in inflation-adjusted terms between the late 1940s and early 1970s” (CBPP). Through the 70's economic growth slowed, and the wealth gap widened. Middle-class families were now considered lower class. People relied on the government to help them out with welfare programs. The middle-class class was weakened and the gap grew and grew. There were periods of positive fluctuation, however the middle-class simply never regained it's status that was held in more prosperous times in the past.
David J Lynch says that, “ [s]ocieties that manage a narrower gap between rich and poor enjoy longer economic expansions”, however, in the United States the gap between the have and have-nots has widened (source C). “This country is just getting worse and worse and worse … and that is not a recipe for stable growth” (source C). If we do not do something soon our capitalist country will fall. In order for the income inequality gap to lessen to create a more stable economy the government must invest in education and unionize workers and not provide higher taxation for the top one percent.
The upper and lower quintile is represented by 20 percent, however over the last two decades Australians are noticing a change in the gap between inequalities. In Australia a study by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that in 1994-1995 the lowest quintile of income earners was at 7.9% which in 2007-2008 was found to be 7.6% meaning that over the 17 years there has been an increase in the lower quintile by .3%. The highest quintile in the years of 1994-1995 was 37.8% this increased in the 17years between the two recordings and in 2007-2008 was observed to be 1.6% larger with 39.4%. This data indicates that the percentage of people in the lowe...
The U.S. has the highest income gap between the wealthiest and poorest in the industrial world, which is approximately 12 to 1. In 2004, the affluent experienced a wage increase by 12%, whereas the 99% of average income makers saw an increase of 1%.
Wealth inequality and income inequality are often mistaken as the same thing. Income inequality is the difference of yearly salary throughout the population.1 Wealth inequality is the difference of all assets within a population.2 The United States has a high degree of wealth distribution between rich and poor than any other majorly developed nation.3
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.
countries, all countries have a pay gap is 0.051, at its highest in the country of Chile in the large scale of things we’re the 4th country with the biggest problem and personally one of the 10
In the United States there are four social classes : the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the lower class. Of these four classes the most inequality exists between the upper class and the lower class. This inequality can be seen in the incomes that the two classes earn. During the period 1979 through the present , the growth in income has disproportionately grown.The bottom sixty percent of the US population actually saw their real income decrease in 1990 dollars. The next 20% saw medium gains. The top twenty percent saw their income increase 18%. The wealthiest one percent saw their incomes rise drastically over 80%. As reported in the 1997 Center on Budget's analysis , the wealthiest one percent of Americans ( 2.6 million people) received as much after-tax income in 1994 as the bottom 35 percent of the population combined (88 million people). But in 1977 the bottom 35 percent had about twice as much after tax income as the top one percent. These statistics further show the disproportional income growth among the social classes. The gr...
Income inequality not only harms us fiscally, but also affects our mental and physical wellbeing; therefore, it is important to identify the right ways to control wealth distribution among people.
Although in the UK relative poverty is more predominant than absolute poverty, it does not mean that it is a problem that should be left behind. The immense difference between the income of a rich person and a poor person addresses the issue to be understood since its causes up to its reduction or, optimistically, its abolition. The UK tax system is used as an attempt to reach both horizontal and vertical equity, therefore reducing inequality and poverty. The horizontal equity remotes to the fact that people in the same financial situation are able to pay taxes on the same basis and should be charged the same rate. Meanwhile, the vertical equity proposes that individuals in diverse financial situations have different abilities to pay taxes, so the charges sho...
First, population plays a large role in every country’s economy. USA’s population is almost 280 million people, whereas, UK’s population is a little less than sixty million people. However, due to the difference in land area of the two countries - UK: 244,820 square kilometers; USA: 9,629,091 square kilometers - the United Kingdom is much more crowded than the United States. Even with these differences the two countries have similar age breakdowns and life expectancies of both males and females. The GDP per capita in the United States is $12,100 more than that of the United Kingdom.
Wealth Inequality: Its Causes and Cures." CFED Inclusive Economy Blog. CFED, Mar. 19, 2018. 2013. The. Web.
Inequality as previously mentioned is a subject that gets debated when brought up and in any debate there is two sides. In class we have discussed both side of the story of inequality, and it has give me a better perspectives of income inequality. When discussion income inequality, we brought up the concept of the economic pie in which states that the economic pie is a reference to the way income gets distributed among the lower, middle, and higher class of America. So the concept of the economic pie states that the rich is getting richer, so they are
Income inequality has affected American citizens ever since the American Dream came to existence. The American Dream is centered around the concept of working hard and earning enough money to support a family, own a home, send children to college, and invest for retirement. Economic gains in income are one of the only possible ways to achieve enough wealth to fulfill the dream. Unfortunately, many people cannot achieve this dream due to low income. Income inequality refers to the uneven distribution of income and wealth between the social classes of American citizens. The United States has often experienced a rise in inequality as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, increasing the unstable gap between the two classes. The income gap in America has been increasing steadily since the late 1970’s, and has now reached historic highs not seen since the 1920’s (Desilver). UC Berkeley economics professor, Emmanuel Saez conducted extensive research on past and present income inequality statistics and published them in his report “Striking it Richer.” Saez claims that changes in technology, tax policies, labor unions, corporate benefits, and social norms have caused income inequality. He stands to advocate a change in American economic policies that will help close this inequality gap and considers institutional and tax reforms that should be developed to counter it. Although Saez’s provides legitimate causes of income inequality, I highly disagree with the thought of making changes to end income inequality. In any diverse economic environment, income inequality will exist due to the rise of some economically successful people and the further development of factors that push people into poverty. I believe income inequality e...
Inequality is presents in many communities and there some consequences attach with it. One of the reasons for inequality is income. Stone (2012) states the consequences of inequality in communities, especially when talking about income of individuals that are part of the community, “income inequality seems also to increases racial prejudice and discrimination against women and ethnic minorities,” (p. 59). Low-income individuals are forced to accept what the services provided by the government, even if those individuals who do want them. Stone (2012) give an example of the lack of choices low income individuals, when talking about food, “very poor people live under constant threat of starvation or homelessness and don’t experience most of their