Professional Skills and Technological Advancement - Essay Example

Capitalist Inequality

The burgeoning income inequality is not only a primary concern for the United States but also the whole world. The phenomenon has received considerable attention from the policymakers in the advanced and developing economies as they seek to foster income equality and equal opportunities for everyone. Despite the multifaceted interventions, the gap between the top affluent and the impoverished populace continues to widen, and wealth concentrates in the hands of a few wealthy people. The capitalist society that promotes the accumulation of the wealth by a particular class of people has contributed immensely to the rising income inequalities. Such heightened levels of inequality result in significant social and economic costs that primarily affect the majority lower and middle-class populations. In fact, Robert Reich, the author of the economically oriented article “Why the Rich are Getting Richer, and the Poor Poorer” highlights the deepening income inequality gap in which a few people are wealthy, and the populace languishes in poverty, an aspect that forms the basis of this essay. The essay will also refer to Virginia Wolf’s personal story “Professions for Women” that highlights the gender-related obstacles that hinder attainment of equality to build on the theme of inequality. The paper argues that inequality as orchestrated by a rise in skill premium, technological advancement, and unequal access to essential services such as education and health is a defining global problem in the contemporary world.

While skills are instrumental in promoting social and economic progress, the rise in skill premium has resulted in income inequalities. The interplay between the supply of jobs and demand of particular skills has consistently led to an increase in skill premium. Such an increase in skill premium has elevated the status of those people with specific knowledge and placed others in a disadvantaged position. Just as Reich indicates, the upper class has the exceptional skills needed not only in their motherland but also across the globe (405). The people in this category are prospering and rise above the lower and middle classes because they can think and sell their highly demanded knowledge and ideas to the foreign nations including the developing countries who cannot think on their own. Indeed, the engineers and architects are in high demand to construct infrastructural facilities for transportation and living in the advancing economies. As a result, they earn higher salaries than the middle and lower-class citizens do, hence deepening the pervasive income inequality. Seemingly, the earnings of the workers in the contemporary economy depend on the capabilities that dictate the tasks they can accomplish. Those scarce skills receive higher monetary rewards than do the people with basic knowledge (Autor 845). Therefore, the fewer the skilled workers in a given field get competitive earnings that elevate their lives and living standards as well.

As mentioned earlier, the advanced and technologically developed economies require extraordinary skills to generate ideas and find solutions to complex solutions in various fields. Such a demand for particular technical knowledge makes those people without those skills irrelevant in the market economy. Their skills become obsolete and are unable to earn meaningful salaries as they cannot compete favorably with technically savvy counterparts. They cannot do well in those jobs that require technical knowledge and creativity. Their skills undergo devaluation because they cannot perform the tasks that do not require automation. The economic fortunes of these people change, and the individuals cannot sustain their families. Many people with the basic skills do not get employment and end up increasing the statistics of the unemployed population (Autor 848). Hence, the negative economic and social reality orchestrated by lack of market-needed skills affect the lower and middle-class citizens. The share of the middle and lower-skilled jobs has declined tremendously in comparison with high-skilled professions. As a result, the gap between the well-earning class and those with basic skills widen due to the concentration of wealth among a few top skilled individuals.

In addition to the rise in skill premium, technological advancement has contributed to the deepening income inequality. Jaumotte, Lall, and Papageorgiou argue that the progress in technology has reduced the number of people needed to perform jobs such as clerical, manufacturing, and retail (275). It has destroyed jobs more rapidly than it has created them, resulting in the stagnation of the income among the people in the middle and lower classes. In performing the non-abstract jobs, the technology has left the typical workers with no work, and they are now worse off than before. In doing so, the technological advancement has reduced the demand for labor and consequently depressed the income growth among the basic skilled workers. It becomes difficult for the lower and middle-class citizens to generate money for their basic needs and set aside some funds for savings. While the technological progress has contributed positively to enhancing productivity, it has also created labor income inequality. As stated earlier, technological changes have disproportionately spurred the demand skilled labor at the expense of the low-skilled and unskilled workforce by upgrading the skill level needed to perform given tasks. Only the numbers of those jobs requiring creativity and utilizing technology have increased as Reich stated. Indeed, technology has reduced the rate of creation of jobs for the unskilled and low-skilled people. Due to such demand of the highly skilled workers, the earning gap has been increasing every single day.

Although adjusting the skills might result in some jobs rebounding, the rapid pace of technological change has disadvantaged the majority of people. It has continuously reinforced the income inequality as it favors a few highly skilled technocrats. In fact, Reich affirms that the proportion of the Americans working in the manufacturing industries has reduced drastically. Only the symbolic analysts are enjoying the ever-increasing demand for their skills (Reich 412). The use of technology in production and automation of jobs has rendered many people who used to perform the manufacturing-related tasks jobless. Indeed, their skills have become obsolete and irrelevant, compelling the employers to terminate them. Adjusting the skills as one of the requirements to do particular technical jobs needs one to invest both time and money. With the increasing cost of living due to the involuntary unemployment orchestrated by the technological advancement, it is difficult for the majority of low-skilled and unskilled individuals to upgrade their skills in pursuit of the highest paid jobs. Such an obstacle implies that the perpetual deepening gap between a few wealthy people and the many poor individuals in the society will remain a defining problem of the contemporary world.

On top of the technological advancement that has destroyed many jobs, unequal access to basic social services such as education and health has widened the inequality between the few elite and the impoverished populace. Education is one of the surest paths to better opportunities in any nation. The educated people acquire skills that help them to create jobs and grab opportunities for the improvement of their lives. Education seeks to change lives and create equal chances for everyone to prosper. While education is a powerful tool that can resolve the issue of inequality, disproportionate access to it widens the phenomenon. When education remains an elusive goal for the majority, the dreams of having a better life in the future die. Just as Wolf indicates, women find it hard to pursue specific careers because of living in male-dominated environments (378). Such unequal access to education adversely affects the educational gains, thereby widening the gap between those who can afford education and the destitute in the society. Those people who cannot access education do not get the opportunity to acquire relevant skills and abilities that place them in a position to compete with their educated counterparts. Therefore, they cannot take part in any economic tasks that require a particular set of skills. Without quality education, the populace is unable to determine their occupational choice and the level of the pay they receive. The inability of the many middle and low-class citizens to afford quality education deepens the gap between the affluent and the poor.

Access to education goes hand in hand with health. The citizens in the top upper class have sufficient financial wherewithal to access the state-of-art health. However, the counterparts in the lower and middle class who receive small earnings cannot access quality care. Autor argues inequality contributes to lower life expectancy observed among the low-income earners (847). Thus, the disproportionate access to the health services puts the less privileged at a disadvantaged position. The society divides into two factions that include those who can access quality health and the people that cannot get basic care. In essence, the disparity in access to health deepens the widening and pervasive inequality in the current society.

Moreover, globalization plays a reinforcing role in deepening the gap between the top upper class and the majority people in the lower and middle classes. Reich alludes that outsourcing of skills that has dampened the income share among the majority unskilled and low-skilled citizens (407). For instance, people in the developing nations are willing to work for less pay than those in the advanced economies do. It is noteworthy that the global markets reward only those people with the right assets including relevant skills. Hence, those who lack the needed capabilities in the developing nations do not benefit from the opportunities presented by the global markets. Such disproportionate access to the international chances creates inequalities in the mother nations as those who secure jobs in the global markets prosper leaving behind the less privileged individuals. Jaumotte, Lall, and Papageorgiou inform that globalization has led to the emigration of highly skilled people who depart their developing nations in pursuit of well-paying occupations where they deploy their skills in a productive way (278). In so doing, globalization unintentionally widens the pervasive inequality.

In conclusion, capitalist inequality is a widespread global and defining problem of the contemporary world. The pace of technological progress, globalization, the rise in skill premium, and unequal access to the essential services such as education and health has heightened the phenomenon. All these drivers mentioned above have continued to elevate the lives of a few people in the society and placed the majority poor in a disadvantaged position. Technology has destroyed many jobs that were initially available for the unskilled and low-skilled people. The only individuals who secure jobs are those with the ability to perform abstract and problem-solving tasks. Those without the technical skills languish in poverty as they do not have ideas to sell to the developing and advanced economies. The disproportionate access to education and health exacerbates the problem, rendering the majority populace unable to realize economic progress. The combination of these factors widens the inequality gap between the few elite and the majority lower and middle-class citizens.