Social inequality is the imbalance in living conditions among the citizens of a country. It is basically defined by two characteristics: economic differences and differences in access to basic rights between social classes.
Find out now the main causes that give rise to social inequality:
1. Bad income distribution
Poor income distribution is possibly the biggest cause of social inequality in a country. The bad distribution of income happens when there is an imbalance between the population that has high income and the poorest population.
In the poor distribution of income, there is a small number of people or families with a high concentration of income (wealth). Most of the population, on the other hand, lives on a lower income, often insufficient for their basic survival.
The poor distribution of income gives rise to a problem known as income concentration, which is precisely the concentration of a large part of the country's income in the hands of a small social group. As a result, the remaining part of the income is divided among the other social classes.
2. Lack of access to quality education
The low educational level in a country is also one of the causes of social inequality, because the low quality of education results in the low quality of professional and technical training. As a result, citizens do not become well prepared to compete and take on good jobs.
The difficulty in accessing quality education manifests itself in several ways:
- by the insufficiency of places in schools,
- by the low quality of the education offered,
- for the little investment in educational public policies,
- by the poor conditions of conservation of schools,
- difficulties related to student transportation,
- safety in the school environment.
In countries with wide social inequality, quality education should be among the government's priorities, as it helps to reduce inequality rates through social inclusion.
3. Insufficient government investments
The lack of government investment is another cause of social inequalities. It is part of a government's obligations to adequate and sufficient investments in areas that allow citizens access to rights that must be guaranteed to all.
Some of these rights are: access to health services, basic education, training for work, housing and public safety. They also suffer from a lack of investment in areas such as culture, leisure, public policies and social assistance.
Government investments may be insufficient for some reasons. It may happen, for example, that the State does not have sufficient resources to meet the demands of all services that are necessary both for the functioning of the government and for meeting the needs of the population.
If this happens and the government is not able to make adequate investments, the services offered to the population will not be of quality or will be insufficient to meet the country's demand.
Likewise, the planning of a government must also make the right decision on which policies public funds must have priority funding to ensure access for the entire population to these rights.
4. Difficulty in accessing basic services
Another cause of social inequality is the difficulty in accessing rights and services that should be guaranteed to all inhabitants of a country. Examples are: access to basic rights to food, housing, education, health, safety and work opportunities.
In unequal countries it is quite common for the reality to be that public services offered by governments to citizens, are insufficient to meet the demand of the population, in addition to often lacking quality proper. As a result, those with sufficient income have access to these services privately.
Thus, those who cannot afford to pay for private services have more difficulty in access these rights if they are not offered by governments or are provided with poor quality.
5. Mismanagement of public resources
Mismanagement of public resources is the mismanagement of decisions regarding the use of public money. Poor management of resources can exist due to the lack of government planning, in cases where the government does not make the right decisions regarding the budget, not making the division of investments necessary for each area.
The misuse of public money can occur by making wrong decisions that lead to waste from public funds and to investment in projects, purchases, policies and works that are not priority.
It should be known that the existence of cases of corruption and money laundering they are also factors that aggravate the situation. In these cases, it is common that the money embezzled in political schemes should be used to guarantee the population's rights and to finance services.
Learn more about the meaning of Social inequality, Poverty and racial inequality.
