Economic, financial, social, cultural and political mechanisms all carry a responsibility for the growing inequality in Australia. This essay will describe these mechanisms and explain how they are related in the context of Australia since the 1970s.
Stilwell and Jordan (2007) stress the importance of socio-economic mechanism and its ability to reinforce inequality. This means that the results of injustice often become the cause of injustice as well, forming a vicious cycle of inequality which hinders equality of opportunity. In Australia, high income earners tend to be located in excluded areas, receive better access to education and from this also receive better job opportunities. Thus, this also means that lower socio-economics classes will be excluded …show more content…
Redistribution is all about getting the balance correct and policy making in Australia must take into consideration how for example an increase in tuition fees can come to exclude lower socio-economic classes from education, and how this later will affect their opportunities in the workforce. This income distribution is also related to gender inequalities where males are generally valued higher in the market which traps women in domestic and unpaid work which is discriminating and reinforces patriarchy structures.
Metha (2012) discusses the cultural mechanism responsible for inequality and how ideas, prejudices and understanding of things can often affect the outcome of inequality. She uses India as example of learned helplessness but this can also be applied to Australia. Here, because it is a represented as a “culture of avoidance” it also transform into one because it has affected the self-image and its self-esteem (Metha,2012,p.45). From this, there is both an active and a passive form of inequality that takes place. It is crucial to both highlight softer cultural mechanism and psychological mechanism that takes place. External mechanism such as
Stilwell and Jordan (2007) stress the importance of socio-economic mechanism and its ability to reinforce inequality. This means that the results of injustice often become the cause of injustice as well, forming a vicious cycle of inequality which hinders equality of opportunity. In Australia, high income earners tend to be located in excluded areas, receive better access to education and from this also receive better job opportunities. Thus, this also means that lower socio-economics classes will be excluded …show more content…
Redistribution is all about getting the balance correct and policy making in Australia must take into consideration how for example an increase in tuition fees can come to exclude lower socio-economic classes from education, and how this later will affect their opportunities in the workforce. This income distribution is also related to gender inequalities where males are generally valued higher in the market which traps women in domestic and unpaid work which is discriminating and reinforces patriarchy structures.
Metha (2012) discusses the cultural mechanism responsible for inequality and how ideas, prejudices and understanding of things can often affect the outcome of inequality. She uses India as example of learned helplessness but this can also be applied to Australia. Here, because it is a represented as a “culture of avoidance” it also transform into one because it has affected the self-image and its self-esteem (Metha,2012,p.45). From this, there is both an active and a passive form of inequality that takes place. It is crucial to both highlight softer cultural mechanism and psychological mechanism that takes place. External mechanism such as