Measuring Understanding Inequality

Measuring and Understanding Inequality When we consider the issue of inequality, in all its manifestations, and attempt to count and categorize the methods to gauge and understand it, we are faced with an interesting dilemma. The manifestations of inequality in our society are so multi-faceted, pervasive and interdependent, that ultimately there are as many ways to measure and understand inequality as there are thinkers and vantage points from which to observe and create paradigms. Having said that, there are some areas in which inequality is particularly evident and statistically measurable. To gain a better understanding I will be examining the organization and structure of the labor market, housing and the use of land, and the role of consumption

To use the case of the Dona Marta slum in Rio De Janeiro as an example, Antonio Regalado wrote an interesting article about the wall erected around it. The article highlights the controversy of essentially walling off a poor community to protect the interests of the wealthy and of the state, somehow turning the issue into a pseudo-moral question. However, is the wall really the issue? The wall did not create Dona Marta. The wall was essentially the equivalent of drawing a line around a pre-existing problem. The Favela and the people in it were there before the wall and the wall is merely a symbol of their lack of mobility. The inhabitants of Dona Marta are not there by choice. What do we mean when we say that the use of land is how inequality exerts control? As mentioned, in Rio de Janeiro, the state government claims to be building walls to protect nature, the rain forests; however, the real reason behind the wall project is to discriminate against “notoriously violent favelas” and to insulate the rich neighborhoods of Rio. (Degaldo, 1) The walls are built so that there is no way to enter the forest from the slums and also so high that the slums would not be seen from the rich neighborhoods. The

How is it possible to describe something like, say, “the creation of a special taxi line for Wallstreet that services the financial district” only as being “agressively exclusive”? (Sassen, 270) I think to see what we mean we must juxtapose it with “a critical survival strategy” that Don Mitchell and Nik Heynen describe as “urban foraging”, an interesting euphemism for “dumpster diving” which is essentially searching through what has been deemed garbage by one individual and reusing it, whether that is goods or unspoiled food. (Mitchell, 618) Clearly, at first glimpse, this is related to our first point, wage disparity. Some individuals earn high wages and, consequently, are able to purchase high price commodities that the lower classes can't afford. However, there is a significant difference between consumption and wages, which allows us to gain a separate understanding, and measure inequality in a different way. On one hand, when we talk about wage disparity we are talking about raw data, dollar figures, about charts and graphs. But, when we talk about consumption and gentrification, on the other hand, we are really talking about the effects of inequality on culture, on the way we live, interact with society, our families and ourselves. When we talk about gentrification, specifically, as a process by which urban