What is equality? This is the most fundamental question. Does it mean that everyone across the globe should have equal treatment in welfare, education, and human rights? Regardless of race, gender or religion, we should all be treated with equal respect and with equal opportunities. Why is this feasible in our modern world? It is because, with globalization and trade, we realize that we can only benefit more if we create peace and harmony between each other (more ideas and creativity; more production and manpower; more consumer base and profits). That means putting our differences aside and creating one society where everyone is happy and contented with their way of life. However, if people are treated differently and unfairly, there will certainly be disagreements and uncontentment.
In the past, hierarchy was dominant in almost any society. Men were more powerful than women, and societies were divided into social classes. The lower classes were peasants and workers who could never climb up the social ladder （except for exceptional people like Shakespeare who achieved fame）. They accepted their fate and even if they became slaves, they could never have the power to fight back against societal views of that time. Unlike today, any unfairness in anything can be resolved. If workers are abused, there will be unions to back them up. Poor people and minorities now dare to speak up about their disagreements and uncontentment of the unfair treatment of them. Why are they different from the people in the past? Where did get this ‘power’ from? Because in this globalized world, the power that these people have is education. With education comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes awareness. This awareness could be about anything. It could be about human rights, society, environment and much more. It opened our perspective on our society.
In Singapore, we have government bodies like Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to safeguard the citizens of Singapore. We also have the Central Provident Fund (CPF) to secure us some financial stability when we retire. However, if workers are abused at work (in salary, defamation, etc.), how many will actually speak up to the unions? Suicide numbers in 2006 remains on of the highest yet, with an increase since 2002.[1]
Thus we have a discussion about Karl Marx and Adam Smith, who both had ideas on industrialization but has different views about them. They were extremists who believed in either one or the other one Adam Smith believed in uninterrupted government free trade while Karl Marx was more towards the communist side; he believed that the wealth should be shared equally among the people in the society.
Definitely, both views have their own pros and cons. Every situation has pros and cons. Although we are always searching for the ‘perfect’ system where there are NO cons at all, it is rather impossible because all of us have different ideas of a ‘perfect’ system, and sacrifice is an ultimate. We can only have a balance of pros and cons, and maybe use it to our advantage to make this society a better place to live in.
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Despite our goal to reach equality, there are still so much disparities around the world. Firstly, we have the rich and the poor. These two categories not only occur between countries, but within countries itself. Like mentioned in the lecture, it could be because of the competitive society that caused this increasing income gap; the rich getting richer, and the poor becoming poorer. It is because if it is a competitive market, all companies will be aiming for profit, the human welfare is not top priority. What extra profits earned by the firm will not be passed down to the workers. Without government intervention, the poor will never have a chance to live a better life when the rich is gaining all the profits.
The apartheid was a famous system that separated the Whites from the Blacks in Africa. This is an inequality where the Whites gained all the benefits and lived a rich life while the Blacks were condemned to be poor, and were stripped off many social rights. Although now South Africa has abolished the apartheid system, the Blacks are still being and staying poor. South Africa’s Human Development Index (HDI) is one of the lowest in the world, ranking 121 out of 177 countries (in 2005). With majority of the Whites enjoying their wealth, we can only assume that the HDI was pulled down by the Blacks who could not get education, income or medical help (because they were poor). http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_ZAF.html
