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Domestic Inequalities in The USA and Denmark Essay

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Societies and their governments have developed different policy approaches to addressing domestic inequality. Compare and contrast two different countries and evaluate the effectiveness of their key policy measures in addressing inequality.
It is a commonly accepted that inequality is increasing throughout the globe, with startling statistics such as the recent Oxfam report indicating that the richest 85 people in the world own more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people(Oxfam Australia Media, 2014). Inequality is thought of as disparities or gaps, such as the distance between a low income and a high income household, or the ratio of their incomes (Divided We Stand, 2011). Domestic inequality refers to inequality within a country and …show more content…

Wealth and assets refer to the “stock” of an individual or household, inequality if often generated from inherited wealth. Physical environment affects inequality through access and availability to natural resources, raw materials and the natural climatic factors that may enhance or disadvantage, leading to inequality.
Although different societies have varying perceptions of what is an acceptable level of equity, it is generally accepted that inequality has an impact on key social determinants such as health, wellbeing, political trust and violence. Wilkinson and Pickett (2009) highlight the social costs of inequality on a whole range of aspects of our lives. Wilkinson and Pickett (2009) argue that if inequality were reduced, there would be significant reductions in mental illness, murder rates, imprisonment and an improvement in social mobility (Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009).

Image: Index of health and social factors – life expectancy; maths and literacy; infant mortality; homicides; imprisonment; teenage births; trust; obesity; mental illness, including drug and alcohol addiction; and social mobility – relative to income inequality. (Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009).
Domestic inequality is most commonly measured using the Gini coefficient that varies between 1 and 0. A coefficient of 1 implies inequality is

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