Income Inequality: What You Know? Author: Gary Loh Income inequality reflects two main factors: the size of the gap between the highest and lowest salaries in a country and the extent to which the state redistributes income through taxes and benefit. Although it might be a sensitive subject to discuss, income inequality is still an extremely important part of Malaysia’s current economic situation and is a vital area of concern if the country wants to keep growing at its current pace. What is income inequality? Income inequality is based on income differences between the people of Malaysia. How much does one person make compared to the other? A reasonable level of inequality of income is not necessarily bad and can actually be stimulating for …show more content…
• Alternatively, doctors make more money than Uber drivers, because they have made greater investments in their education. If they would be paid the same, people would be hesitant to become doctors, because the time and money commitment are disproportionate to the rewards. Even though there is an economic argument for inequality, it is not ideal from a social standpoint. If we would let capitalism run its course without government intervention, inequality can cause severe economic, social and political problems. With rising inequality, the majority will be discontent with how little they have compared to the top 10% because income is always concentrating on the most productive part of the population. How is income inequality measured? A very common way to measure income inequality called the Gini Coefficient. With a scale of 0 to 1, a Gini Coefficient of 0 means everyone in the society has the same wealth, while 1 means one person has everything and no one else has …show more content…
Only the Philippines and Singapore have a higher Gini Coefficient. Therefore, conclude that, across the ASEAN region, the income inequality in Malaysia is relatively high. How can income inequality in Malaysia be reduced? So even though the income gap in Malaysia is getting smaller, the country still has one of the highest income inequalities in the region. One of the biggest influencers of income inequality is the Malaysian government. The government can adjust its policies to make the economic situation of the people in the lower income brackets more favourable. There are several methods the government can employ to stimulate income equality across the country. How it works? We have established that the income gap is getting smaller but the gap is still relatively high compared to other ASEAN countries. To stimulate the process, there are several things that could change to stimulate the reduction of the income