I stayed by my previous thought that inequality is still bad. It’s bad for everyone (including the rich) even if they disagree. Yes, I always think it’s great to motivate people. No one will put any effort in if there’s no rewards. Or there will be an even smaller amount of people willing to do so. Personally, I think rewards motivate me more than nothing. Even trying to live a comfortable life is enough motivation for most people to work. Listening to everyone’s input in class I thought to myself, if society wasn’t rigged to be at a disadvantage in the first place there wouldn’t be inequality. I think of the MLK example someone made class.
I was interested in their point but I’d also argue that if we lived in hypothetical world where inequality didn’t exist, then MLK wouldn’t have to fight for rights in the first place. It made me think the whole class was thinking about inequality in their own way. It felt like an umbrella term so you could see this in other perspectives and experiences. I disagree with those that say if we were equal that it means we’re all same and no one would be different. A person’s experience in life is what makes someone different. Not to mention, what I think is equal and what other people think is equal may be two completely different things. I’m not sure if this makes sense but some of the things that people said in class made me think it takes inequality to overcome inequality.
I think that it’s both inevitable because of how we organize and practice society. It feels like people that are at a disadvantage are set up for failure. I’m more of an equity than equality person. I think of the picture you showed us last Wednesday. If everyone had $5000 given to them that’s great for anyone. However, this could either mean just more money in someone’s bank account or being able to pay bills for the month so that person doesn’t get evited from their home. Yes, it’s equal but the second person clearly needs more when the first person doesn’t. I saw this in my sociology of sports class as well. Some people may be more at an advantage in life when they don’t need to be.
Part of me wants to think that’s what the other students think too. There should definitely be limits to inequality. I think of the huge pay gaps that gender, race, and ethnicity have. I took global inequality last semester. I still don’t really know if global or national inequality is worse. I think that global is less known or talked about compared to national. We see firsthand how inequality has effected those around us but if we also think about how so many immigrants are struggling to get jobs and have to leave their home countries only to get a job that barely pays for anything and hard to get back home, that’s a huge problem in inequality as well. I think it is important but less people are about it because it doesn’t directly involve themselves in that situation.
