Confronting Inequality: Paul K. Olson And Sebastian Mallaby

Income Inequality

Nowadays in our society we need a feeling of superior and more powerful than

others we have been segregated into socioeconomic classes. This essay describes about

the inequality suffered by the employees from their respective companies. Paul Krugman, Karen

Olson and Sebastian Mallaby give their point of views regarding how the companies do

their business and get profited by putting their employees under unsustainable conditions. The

specific example of Walmart cooperation is given in the article which explains the inequality

done to its workers by not giving them affordable health benefits and paying less.

Krugman in his article “Confronting Inequality” argues that
we need to care about

inequality and living standard of Americans today. We need to be more clear about the economic

progress of lower or middle class families and the equal distribution of income among all social

groups. Krugman states, “The fact is that the vast inequality inevitably brings vast social

inequality in it’s train”.The Walmart workers are going through such an inequality in which they

are asked to do overtime job with hard time without any pay and also not getting any medical

benefits.If they do so then the amount will be deducted from their income. One of the way

inequality damages us is it corrupts our politics. For me it makes a lot of sense but at th same

time no sense. If politics are corrupted by class with more power,then laws will be made or

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reformed to their own benefits affecting in many positive ways the rich and in negative ways the

poor respectively.

Karen Olson describes in her essay the inequality faced by the meat department of

Wal-Mart employees when they made their own union to get some of the benefits from the

company. Wal-Mart responded to the union drive by trying to stop workers from organizing.

They lost their jobs as they stand against the administration .She also agrees with

Sebastian Mallaby who talked about the profits made by the Walmart for its share holders and

consumers. The company is the world’s largest retailer with $220 billion in sales, and nation’s

largest private employer with 3372 stores and more than one million hourly workers. With this

information, readers are knowledgeable about the success of Walmart stores. However, she then

goes on to say, “upto 40% of employees opt not to receive coverage under the company’s

medical plan which costs upto $2844 a year plus dedutible”.On the other hand, Mallaby

responded by arguing that the savings from employees income gives a new direction to their

business by locating new stores at different places.
He made his point strong by explaing that

whether it has low income but still they getting thousands of job applications. Walmart is

considered to be the most cheapest retailer store as compared to Target or Costco. Its everyday

low prices make a great difference to the poor.

Besides the inequality suffered by the people ,this financial growth of shareholders

requires the destruction of the environment and the shortcut methods of preparing things exploits

the whole world as shown in the documentary “The Corporation”.Despite this destruction , there

is no choice left for the people to work at low wages under the corporate persons as they need to

feed their families. They agreed to work under such conditions with a hope of maintaining their

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life. As in the documentary, employees of branded companies are paid some cents for
making

high cost of products but working at low rates becomes their necessity to prevent their children

from starvation. . Moreover, the company’s owner doesn’t even know where their products are

made and what their employees getting. They only know about the profit and loss made by their

companies and how to compensate them by reducing their workers salaries and getting back their

benefits. If the workers make a union and demand their needs from the associates then they

might get some of the advantages rather than increasing their income.Obama quotes that

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union”.We together can eliminate the inequality

from the United States if we don’t have any more racial discrimination and anger towards other

races. Sometime it is seen at various work places that inspite of higher qualifications, people

preferred to give employment to their community people.

The problem not only stop at the workers, but actually it arises from the upcoming

candidates who are seeking jobs after the completion or incompletion of their studies. Tamara

Draut depicts the picture of the enrollment of students into colleges from poor and wealthy

families. The students who came from poor families are at the disadvantage of not getting

undergraduate degree because of their financial status which comes to their way when they are

finding jobs and because of their qualification they find low income work. Drautt also writes that

it takes long time to complete bachelor’s degree in today’s society and employers are seeking

candidates with bachelor and master degrees. Such a demand also causes inequality between the

rich and the wealthy people.

In order to save the country from such inequality, we need to give equal rights to

everyone despite of their gender and class .Giving fianancial help to the students of low income 4

families even helps them to gain graduate degrees and opportunity to get better job for their

future. Furthermore, it is extremely unfair with the employees that they have to suffer so much

from their associates But on the other hand, we don’t accuse companies who provide everyday

low prices to the low and middle class families as this is the only source for these families to get

best stuff for their homes.