Question

Reverend Jerry Jones says, “There’s a growing chasm between the haves and the have-nots.” How does wealth inequality in the U.S. compare with that of other countries? What are the social and economic forces that have contributed to the widening wealth gap in America? What is the effect on health?

Answer 1

Answer.

The United States holds the largest amount of private wealth than any country in the world. But this wealth is shown to be unevenly distributed, making the country have the largest wealth inequality gap. Compared to the other developed countries including Canada, Britain and Germnay, in the United States there is a concentration of overall wealth in the hands of the proportionately fewest people who are largely White, educated and business professionals. The ethnic minorities, single mothers and tertiary labour sector largely remains within the category of the economically weaker sections of the population.

Income inequality has increased over the past 30 years, as income has flowed unequally to those at the economic elites who are at the top of the income spectrum. largely speaking, there can be three possible explanatory causes of falling wages and rising income inequality: technology, trade, and institutions. The demand for skilled labour has consistently increased across developed countries and within the United States it has led to the rise in large wage premiums for workers with high levels of education and skills. Moreover, the surge of globalisation and coroporate outsourcing has led to growing trade between the United States and the rest of the world, especially China, but this has increased the number of imports in the U.S. economy, which has ultimately led to job loss in native industries that originally produced these goods in the United States. This offshoring of industrial goods has lead to declining employment and depreciation of the U.S. dollar. finally, the government policies since the Twentieth century have also resulted in widening the economic disparity as the increasing efforts towards de-unionisation of industries, taxations have further reduced the prospects of income and wage growth.

Thus, Income inequality has no one cause. And as such, any policy solutions that address inequality must keep in mind the multiplicity of factors involved in creating adverse consequences such as the increasing health expenses and the inability to avail health benefits due to the increase in the segment of the US population which is most affected by income inequality.