Week 8: Global Inequality

Like the podcast asked, why should we care about global inequality?  It may be easy to say that global inequality does not matter so much to us in the United States because we are so high on the income scale and most of us enjoy comfortable lifestyles.  However, to someone in a low income country like most of Africa, global inequality would be a big deal.  Low income countries strive to build their economies and may strive to be like the United States or western Europe.  They face a lot of challenges though.  Global inequality is something those countries struggle with every day.  We may not see the impact of the inequality in our lives in obvious ways, but it does affect us.

Many of our jobs here in America are outsourced to other countries because those countries will work for far less wages.  That has an impact on unemployment rates and therefore poverty rates in the United States.  America gets many products from other countries because they may be cheaper.  Because we depend so much on these exports, the prices can change a lot.  These other countries that control the production of things we want can change their prices, which in turn makes us pay more.  Global inequality also affects what we are able to sell.  The low income countries cannot afford our products and we lose business because of that.  If global inequality were to diminish and those low income countries were to see an increase in their economy we could start new business with them.

Not only should we care about global inequality because of business reasons, but also moral reasons.  Global inequality means that low income countries do not have access to health care or education.  They cannot afford the means to live a minimally necessary lifestyle.  Children starve and die of diseases they should not die from.  If these countries had a chance to learn from schooling they could make something of themselves and help their countries to improve.  Children would not have to die and quality of life would improve.  These sorts of problems may not affect us directly here in America but I feel that we as a high income and privileged country should aid those other countries in some way so that we can all benefit from less global inequality.