INEQUALITY AND INSECURITY

Has Work Become More Insecure and Unequal?

Has Work Become More Insecure and Unequal?

Introduction

Today, inequality and insecurity are among the most prominent issues of social research. As many social scientists are of the view that income inequality and insecurity are the foremost causes of social unrest, an understanding of the said issues is, thus, imperative for those are concerned about the establishment of a prosperous and peaceful society. It should be noted here that inequality, though somehow related to poverty, is a different from it. The issue of inequality is related to the variations and changes in standards of living of different classes of society across the whole population.

On the contrary, the mere point of focus for poverty is section of population whose standards of living falls far below a predefined threshold, which is commonly known as the poverty line. There are multiple ways through which this threshold or line can be defined for the purpose of drawing a demarcation between those who are poor and those who are not. While most of the time, this threshold can be defined in relative terms (standards of living), it can also be set out in absolute terms (exceptionally resolute norms such as requirement of calorie intake).

Insecurity, on the other hand, is a phenomenon by which a person feels his or her social status is insecure and there are chances that he or she would not be able to maintain that status due to different factors such as social or economic inequality prevalent in the society (Collins, Yeskel, & United for a Fair Economy, 2000). This paper aims at discussing the different aspects of inequality and insecurity in the light of modern sociological studies and practices. The paper will also discuss how the elements of inequality and insecurity can affect different social groups in order to determine whether the work has become more insecure and unequal in today's globalized world.

Discussion

Although many people are of the view than socioeconomic inequality and insecurity play a decisive role for the society by adding to the problems associated with relative deprivation, but what inequality and insecurity actually do or do not and to what extent these phenomena affect the society has largely remained a matter of subjective opinion. But the advancement in research methods and vast availability of relevant data has now enabled us to actually observe what impact inequality and insecurity have on those societies with different socioeconomic status.

Income inequality is referred to as an extent to which the income is unevenly distributed in a given country. The scale is one of most important tools, along with per capital income, for measuring the income of a country, while the later provides no information regarding how that income is distributed. It is a common practice for many nations to mask income and social inequality by projecting national average.

High inequality poses two challenges. First, assessment of the impact inequality has on the wellbeing of that society. In most of the cases observed in ...