Essay On Equality Of Income And Wealth

According to author Robert Putnam, Americans were never really worried about “equality of income and wealth.” Instead, they focused their concern to “equality of opportunity” and “social mobility.” The equality of income and wealth refers to the amount of money that individuals bring in based on their salaries from their job. This is an individual entity in which people mostly do not worry about it on a larger scale within society. On the contrary, we tend to think more about equality of opportunity and social mobility. This is because these two ideas affect everyone within society. Equal opportunity leads to a more equal society and a fair way for all people to have social mobility and to climb the social and economic ladder. Equality of opportunity allows for

Equality of opportunity and social mobility lead to equality of income and wealth. Equality of opportunity and social mobility are practically conveying that where one ends up in life is not dependent on where one starts in life. When it comes to mobility, there are two types: relative mobility and absolute mobility. According to Professor Martino, relative mobility is how likely children are to exceed their parents in social status and income. Furthermore, absolute mobility is a measurement of living standards in society compared to the past. Absolute mobility has stalled since the 1970s (Putnam, p. 43). When it comes to equality of opportunity and social mobility, relative mobility can help to explain how the younger generation is doing compared to the older generation. If it is doing worse, then relative mobility is likely very low. When it comes to social mobility and opportunity, absolute mobility conveys the standard of living of the overall society. So, if living standards are increasing and incomes are not, then there is low absolute mobility. When there is less relative mobility, there is less absolute