Sunday, August 12, 2007

Summer Article #3: Income Inequality & Poverty

Brown calls for action on poverty


This article explains Brown's recent proposal regarding the elimination of poverty in the world. Poverty in the world is a result of many different factors, including ability, education & training, discrimination, unequal distribution of wealth, market power, and misfortune. Ability refers to the clear and simple fact that not everyone on earth is born with the same abilities; some are born intelligent, others are born physically capable, and some are born artistic. There are also those who are born with physical or mental impairments which prevent them from having the capability of receiving an income. It is here that the problem begins. Education and training is another major factor of the poverty in the world. Those living in Africa are not provided with the same opportunities for education as those, say, living in the US or in Europe. This turns into a vicious cycle, as lack of education leads to a less capable adult generation who, in turn, can not improve the education. An uneducated population is not able to live and prosper in the way an educated population can. In other words, this population lives in poverty. Unequal distribution of wealth also contributes to poverty. While income refers to the flow of money received by a particular person over a period of time, wealth refers to the assets owned by an individual which are worth a particular amount of money. While many people in developed countries are very wealthy in that they own fixed assets which are worth a large sum of money, it is safe to assume that the number of Africans who own a valuable piece of land or house is minuscule. The lack of wealth leads to fluctuation in their standards of living, as the amount of money they possess solely relies on their income, which is most likely not stable or anywhere near a large amount of money.
Brown's idea is most definitely one of the best proposals yet, but, taking into account all of the causes mentioned above, it seems to be easier said than done.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home