Class and Inequalities
Class and inequalities has always been a great problem in our society. One good example will be the caste system that had existed in several countries like India and Europe, where the citizens are being separated into different classes. Other than a fixed syste,inequality can always exist in the form of religions and races, like during Hitler’s rule, the Jews are being considered to be of the lowest class and had been looked down upon by most of the other people. However, this form of class and inequalities have died down now in most of the countries.
In the modern society now, class and inequalities exist in the form of the rich and the poor. It exists not only between different countries but even within the country. As a country develop and improve, the rich and educated will work on their resources, resulting in greater wealth for them, while the poor will remain as they are. Hence the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Just like in America, the gap between the rich and the poor increased at the same speed as the economic growth.
I feel that one of the main causes of such a problem will be capitalism which was being considered as the most efficient mean of production. It indeed helped to increase production but at the same time widened the gap between the rich and the poor. However, is there another better way of production? A Jewish philosopher, Karl Marx saw the problem of capitalism and argued that the most important mean of production was knowledge. That was where communism was developed from. However,I feel that despite the fact that he did manage to successfully see the problem of capitalism, the idea of communism also had a problem, and an even greater one. Communism did help to close the gap between the rich and then poor, but due to the fact that wealth was being distributed equally among the people, most of them had no motivation to work. This was because their hard work did not equal to greater wealth. In the long term, this would then slow down the economy of the country.
I feel that the problem of class and inequalities is something that cannot be completely solve and will continue to exist in our society in different forms. It is impossible to prevent the rich from getting richer as this would hinder the economic growth of the country, hence the only way will be to encourage the poor to work harder. Other than granting financial grants to them, the government should also encourage them to get educated, just like how Singapore is encouraging life-long learning. With education, they would then have a more equal chances to get better jobs that grant them better salaries. It is better to teach them to fish rather than to give them fish. Only when the poor gain the ability to earn their own living will the gap between the rich and the poor close up.
