Poor Wage Distribution - Essay Example

Income inequality There is an increase in the level of inequality in the society, resulting from poor wage distribution. As the wage gap between the high-income earners and the low-income earners keeps getting bigger, the lifestyles between these two groups differ substantially. While the high-income earners have proper lifestyles characterized by good living conditions and high levels of disposable incomes, the low-income earners on the other hand have poor lifestyles characterized by high levels of desperation and no disposable incomes. This income inequality brings many social problems in the society. Among the various social problems created by income inequality in America, include low standards of living, increased cases of abortion and drug abuse and high crime rate. Unequal income distribution in the society leads to high levels of poverty among the low-income earners. Poverty denies people the freedom of choice, especially the kind of life they want to live. While most of the people wish to raise their children in secure neighbourhoods, take them to the best schools, and provide them with adequate fun, the poor cannot. They have to contend with insecure neighbourhoods, where they can afford housing, take their children to the normal schools, and subsidize the amount of money they spend on their children’s fun. Their children thus cannot celebrate important events like Halloween and or attend prom in their schools. Krugman argues that, “One reason to care about inequality is the straightforward matter of living standards”. As they cannot afford to live comfortably and have to struggle within their means, the poor compromises their living standards. Shenita Simon points out that earning a salary of $8 per hour, which translates to $269 weekly after tax compromises the kind of life she and her family have to live in (“PBS Newshour”, web). In fact, they cannot afford decent meals, despite the fact that foodstuff takes the highest percentage of her income. The situation gets even worse when her family cannot afford the three meals every day, only being thankful that her children have the opportunity to get three meals every day; the school provides them with two meals. Poor nutrition, argues Krugman, thanks to our low income and lack of social support leads to poor health of the people. The low incomes cannot support the family and leave a portion to save. Hence, they find themselves in a vicious cycle of poverty, consuming all the income. For the poor, they cannot invest, n either can they afford to buy a car or even a house. They have to rely on public means and whenever they can, they walk in order to save the bus fare. Shenita and her family of seven have to live in highly congested house that they can barely fit in. This reduces their privacy, increasing stress levels for the adults. Factory workers in China, argues Chang (web) suffer from high levels of poverty, as they cannot afford good living standards from their little salaries. Krugman argues that America’s high in equality imposes serious costs to our society that go beyond the way it holds down the purchasing power of most families. Thus, these effects are far more reaching than the inability of the families to pay for their needs. High crime rate is yet another cause of income inequality in the society. Poor people with little or no incomes characterize most of the neighbourhoods with high crime rates. Desperate to provide for their families and support their lifestyles, the poor people ends up in crime as the only way out of the high levels of poverty. Shenita lives in Brooklyn, one of the neighbourhoods with the highest crime rates in the United States. As Shenita points out, despite the fact that she did not want her children to experience poverty, the low income she gets from the fast food store is inadequate to support her family and get her children better housing in a better neighbourhood (“PBS Newshour”, web). Instead, they live in a risky neighbourhood, which restricts their movements to only during the day. According to Chang (web), despite the fact that the workers have jobs, they cannot afford to live good lives resulting from their low wages. Due to the use of illegal firearms, crime in most cases causes death of innocent citizens. Other criminals result to rape, regardless of the age of the people. Women as such become targets of criminals due to their vulnerable nature. Not only does unequal distribution of income, contribute to poor living standards and increased crime rates, it also increases the chances of moral decay in the society. Krugman observes that high inequality, which has turned us into a nation with a much-weakened middle class, has corrosive effect on social relations. Further, he observes that income inequality has real, negative consequences for the way people live in this country. Increased cases of abortion and drug abuse are factors attributed to low income levels. A young couple with little or no income are likely to result to abortion in order to avoid responsibilities of raising a child, as it is difficult to raise a child with low or no income at all. In addition to the child requiring a mother’s close attention, children supplements are expensive. However, low-income parents spend most of their time at work instead of their families. They rarely have day-offs, and in case of any, they engage themselves in other income generating activities to supplement their meagre salaries. As low-income earners in most cases do odd jobs, they have to work extra hours to increase their income levels. The more the number of hours she works, argues Shenita, the more the amount of money she gets (“PBS Newshour”, web). Subsequently, this keeps her away from her children, leaving them under the care of her jobless husband. As such, in most cases, she is away from work, rather than being home with her children. With their mother absent, the children suffer from poor parenting. Living in a highly insecure area with high crime rate can lure her children to crime. In other instances, they could engage in other illegal activities such as drug abuse. This results into high cases of delinquency in the society. To avoid taking too much time off from work, especially in a scenario as Shenita’s where the sole breadwinner for her is family, she is likely to avoid maternity leaves (“PBS Newshour”, film). In case she was to get pregnant, abortion would be the only way out in order to keep her family running. Whenever people become desperate out of poverty, they suffer from high stress levels, resultant from the fact that they cannot achieve their dreams. Such people result to alcoholism and other drugs as a way of taking care of their problem. This locks them in a vicious cycle of poverty, as they spend more money on drugs, and waste a lot of time that they could have used for economic benefits. Chang (web) asserts that even the manufacturers of the gadgets that people use cannot afford to buy them, an indication of the high levels of poverty affecting the middle class. The increasing income inequality among the people in the society causes a number of social problems among the people in the society. Poverty in fact is the biggest contributing factor to the increased number of social problems, which results from poor income distribution in the society. The poor, living in deplorable conditions struggle with life while the rich have disposable incomes to spend on various needs. Low-income earners have no choices, and as such have poor living standards. Rarely can they afford most of all their needs. Instead, they have to budget for the little amount of money they acquire in order to make sure that their families run smoothly. Inequality in income distribution also contributes to high crime rates in the society and poor morals in the society such as high rates of abortion, crime, and drug abuse. Works Cited Chang, Leslie T. The voices of Chinas workers. TED speaks. 2012, film. http://www.ted.com/talks/leslie_t_chang_the_voices_of_china_s_workers.html Krugman, Paul. “Confronting Inequality.” They say, I say with readings. Eds., Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst. New York. W.W. Norton & Company. 2009. Print. 322-41. PBSNewshour. One NYC familys struggle to survive on a fast food salary, 2013. Film. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/nation/july-dec13/minimumwage_11-04.html Read More