Reader Response Final

In this article, “China has almost wiped out urban poverty. Now it must tackle inequality”. Although with reduced poverty is still presented with the problem of inequality among its people. The author Stuart (2015), states that China’s poverty issue has been eradicated gradually due to the Government granting subsidies and employing more workers in the country. However they are still facing inequality problems and the measures taken need to be sustainable. Stuart (2015) also notes that the Government is still facing income inequality, gender and regional unequal treatment, and air pollution which they have yet to overcome. Indeed all these issues are problematic therefore working out a plan could be time consuming and even costly in times of economic downturn. Nonetheless these issues will still remain hence they should focus on more reliable countermeasures such as taxing on the wealthy, offering better funding and rebates, or improving the social policies.

Some of the wealthy in China tends to go underhand by transferring some of their assets overseas to avoid taxation. China could prevent companies from transferring their financial gains overseas in order to avoid paying income taxes and insist that companies pay equitable taxes (Sanders, 2016). Hence with the wealthy paying more taxes, the Government could create more working opportunities for people in rural areas. This would therefore improve the balance of income disparities. In addition China’s Government should attempt to narrow the income gap.

It would be hard to completely patch the income gap but there are ways to narrow the income gap. According to the article “Is Singapore’s income inequality gap narrowing?”, Holliday (2014) states that lower income families usually received help from the Singapore’s Government known as ‘Special Transfers’ where they gave out utilities rebate that aided in narrowing the income gap. China should adopt the policies like the Singapore’s Government giving out utilities rebates for residents with lower income reducing their financial burden. Additionally, the co-funding of wages for the workers in Singapore has also helped organizations to give more for their employees which China could follow. China could also create social policies to rebalance their economy.

Unfortunately, although creating a new policy could resolve an inequality problem but could also aggravate another. Therefore in order to create equality, in the article, “An introduction to social policy”, Spicker (2006) noted that there are three ways to focus on. Firstly, the equality of treatment, people should be treated as equals without prejudice. Secondly, giving equal opportunity, people should be given an opportunity to venture with what they seek and able to prove themselves on the same ground. Lastly, policies that promote the equality of income should be focusing on solving problems instead of raising concerns on the disadvantages. Hence with these methods, China should be able to make the measures more sustainable.

The ideal outcome comes from the Government as well as the people of the country. Be it the rich or the poor, everyone should be given the same treatment and opportunities to create a better future for their country.

References:

1.       Bernie Sanders(2016). Income and wealth inequality from https://berniesanders.com/issues/income-and-wealth-inequality/

2.       Katie Holliday(2014) Retrieved 7 Aug 2014 from Is Singapore income inequality gap narrowing?  http://www.cnbc.com/2014/08/07/is-singapores-income-inequality-gap-narrowing.html

3.       Paul Spicker(2006) An introduction to social policy from http://www.spicker.uk/social-policy/equality.htm#Gender%20and%20social%20policy