18 thoughts on “Week 4 – Income Inequality Within a Country”

1. Question #1:
   From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear?

   For the most part, everything was easy to understand such as micro and macro data, income and consumption inequality, yet the concept of functional versus personal distribution is what I’m trying to grasp. I know that the difference between the two comes from comparing the data of individuals of a society through personal distribution, while functional serves as the income gained from goods sold through means of production. This was however, easy to comprehend from the blue dot meaning that that the time in which these men came out with their most valued work. I’ve noticed that for most of these individuals like Marx or Tenbergen, published their influential pieces close to the year of when they passed. I was able to take away that these economic distributions help to coincide with inequality and how that impacts each person on the scale.

   Question #2:
   From the reading what is not clear?

   From Chapter 1 & and the many vignettes composed in the book, this guided me to perceive the main ideas which Milanovic delineated. By mentioning this view on Capitalism, it made me more aware of why our society is so unequal and the social welfare functions between those making up the world. Hence some ideas that provoked a reaction were the relationship between physical and human capital. While it’s known that the rich keep a portion of their wealth under savings, it’s highlighted that their investments are crucial in providing resources such as roads or other societal needs. Now without this, education would be more valued and it’s argued that it should moreover be widely spread which I completely agree with. By having education be made available to some, where those some may/may not have access to funds to foster their learning, the growth rate decreases and thus inequality remains a worldwide dilemma.

   Question #3:
   Given the video on the Industrial Revolution, describe the main characteristics of society before and after the Industrial Revolution.

   Before the industrial revolution, human labor was what remained the significant aspect of this era as the aristocrats owned land and made profit from the lower class who worked on this land. But once the Industrial Revolution commenced, that’s when manual ways of working were replaced by machines that were cheap and worked faster than the average human. New machines such as the Textile Mill were the main characteristic during this time period as thousands upon thousands of workers were being hired to work in these factories. Others, such as the better off moved to industrial towns and over time locomotives and steamboats made it possible for manufactured goods to be sold further out in other areas. While these are some of the positive aspects of the Industrial Revolution, the not so great characteristics came from all of the pollution produced from the items in factories. This negatively impacted the environment and people in the towns, where Capitalists kept making profits & children and other workers kept getting exploited.

   Question #4:
   Given the video on John Rawls, what is the veil of ignorance?

   The veil of ignorance is the imagination before birth takes place in a conscious state of intelligence. What makes Rawls’ concept interesting is that we are unable to know how our future will look like in terms of who or where we live, or the type of class we’re grained into. What’s special about this are the unknowns that come with where a person falls into the world. I can be born in Italy with a rich family versus someone who is born in Texas having a middle class income. It’s like rolling a dice or betting your odds to outcomes you don’t know about. The main idea of Rawls is to get us to think about what an equal society would look like and how to go about issues that are posed. This can range from economical to more generalized principles like justice. By doing so we can understand the workings of how a fair community should be depicted.

   Question #5:
   Write down the country or describe the society you would like to be born in if you had no information regarding your family background or ascriptive characteristics (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc). Why?

   If I had no information or any clue of that matter as to where I would fall after I’m born, I would simply like to live in the most equalized society. I don’t believe school should be charged unto any monetary gain, so I would like education to be free for all. I would also like to strongly emphasize how much I want the elimination of Capitalists. Since the working class is putting value into what they create and not being owed exactly how much they would receive as profit, people such as Jeff Bezos continue to thrive off of unfair conditions. I would have a country/countries where justice is also served through the law and with housing. Because of the inequalities we see on a daily basis, our society is filled with injustices which I would diminish in my ideal world.

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2. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear?

   I had trouble trying to understand what personal distribution and functional distribution were. From my understanding, I thought personal distribution was referring to the idea that since jobs started to multiply after the industrial revolution there were different levels of income that were being taken into account of the population. For functional distribution, I believe it means the distribution of wealth for the population where it was the same from one person to the other since most people had similar jobs working in agriculture. I also had trouble understanding why the inequality level increased after government redistribution. I thought that it would be something to continue to help decrease poverty and income inequality. The graph shown makes me believe that populations from rich countries are working backward and not helping the poor as much.

   2. From the reading what is not clear?
   I had a hard time understanding utility. I was not sure what utility meant because I thought it was a job but then I started to understand that it was goods and services. I also could not grasp what marginal utility was since it was hard understanding that someone might overuse a utility to the point they are not as satisfied. It would help if I could have a relatable example to help me. I also had trouble understanding fiscal data and do not think I have it quite right. From what I understood in the reading it was pertaining to the amount of taxes that the individuals in a population must pay. I also had trouble understanding the stories in Vignette 1.1 and 1.2 when they were describing the difference in income of the women after they got married.

   3. Given the video on the Industrial Revolution, describe the main characteristics of society before and after the Industrial Revolution

   The video described the society before industrial evolution as one where everyone led similar lives with a job involved with agriculture. The landowners were significantly richer than the workers in these fields and would live lavishly. The landowners had servants to clean their homes and raise their children. Those who did work in agriculture barely made a living. During the Industrial Revolution, the people moved from rural areas to the city to find factory jobs. The city provided many jobs, but the pay was not survivable for these individuals. They described the living situation of the poor in the city as living in slums due to poor living conditions. The circumstances for the poor were so severe they had children working and that is why people fought for labor laws and safety regulations.

   4. Given the video on John Rawls, what is the veil of ignorance?

   The veil of ignorance describes the state of our perspectives where we are not exposed to the harsh realities of our societies with injustice, inequality, and violence. Our minds will be innocent and like a blank slate from all societal pressures where we are compared to the minds of a baby that is not born yet. With this mindset where our wisdom is at zero, we are asked to imagine or to pick a place that we would desire to live without knowing who we will become or our place in society. Once we break down the essentials required for our desired country to live in, we are able to see the basic needs would be the best quality of healthcare, education, housing, and in our justice system.

   5. Write down the country or describe the society you would like to be born in if you had no information regarding your family background or ascriptive characteristics (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc). Why?

   I would like to live in a society where any individual is not seen as less than because of their identity or financial circumstances. This a desired characteristic because I have faced discrimination over being a Latinx female and would like to live without that kind of energy in my day to day life. I would want there to equal chances for anyone to move up in the income class level without the concern of others getting an upper hand because of their identity or wealth. This is another characteristic of a society that I would have in place because I feel that I do have more obstacles in success compared to others who might have privileges in being wealthier or having less racism targeted towards them. My ideal society would also have free education at all levels that will be funded by the taxes of the people. I would be satisfied with this characteristic because if education was free for everyone then I would aim way higher in my career goals without worrying about college student debt. Anyone who commits a crime will not be observed with any bias or discrimination. Everyone would be accepting and respectful of all identities of all forms. This is necessary for my dream society because I would know that minorities are safe in my society and will not have to face as much prejudice due to racial profiling.

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3. 1.The power point lecture is clear. There was some material reviewed from previous class, which is always helpful. The charts were organized and explained well. It is so interesting to see records from the medieval era. Utterly amazing that we can obtain those records today. Comparing income and consumption inequality was also explained well in the power point presentation. I will use the lecture to help me understand the reading a bit better.

   2.The reading is informative. Interpersonal and functional distribution overlap for me, I would like to understand both distributions better. Perhaps it is the way things are written that I feel they both intertwine with one another. I noticed that some of the reading mentions material that Atkinson covered, such as the Gini coefficient, household disposable income. While reading about the increase of Americas Gini, it made me think how high the Gini is in present day, during the Covid 19 pandemic, and knowing many people lost their jobs. Meaning there was a huge increase in income inequality. (I recognize that I’m learning from this course because that is a question I never or would have ever asked myself before this course).

   3.Most people worked in fields. Most did not own the land, there was specific landowners. These people were called aristocrats. These people have servants to do their housework and tend to their children. The aristocrats and servants depended upon each other; it was a system that existed for a long time. There was also less inequality because everyone was sort of working for the same amount, and for others. People lived in a more rural structures society. After and during the boom of the industrial revolution, people moved to more cities, because there was more work for individuals. Families moved from villages to more industrial towns. People before the industrial revolution used hand power tools, after the industrial revolution, people used machines that were powered by water, steam, and coal. These machines made labor easier for individuals. The machines also allowed the work to be cheaper and faster. Machines helped the production of manufactured goods. The machines also allowed access and easier access to international trade, and global trade.

   4.Veil of ignorance- Is an experiment that allows an individual to question what is wrong with society. This experiment allows an individual to think about others, rather than having a fixed egocentric perspective. Sometimes people do not stop and think about what it would be like to live the life of others because they are busy living their own lives. Some people do not take others into account, those who might be privileged, may not think about the obstacles, and struggles of those who are not as privileged or doing as good. The veil of ignorance allows individuals the opportunity to reflect on society and see what is truly wrong in the world. Allows you to imagine what society you would like to be born in without knowing any facts about yourself, your family, your government, or the society the individual lives in, and much more.

   5. That is truly a hard question. If I were able to decide what country or society I would like to be born in, I would take many factors into account, as mention by John Rawls and his experiment, the veil of ignorance. I would like to be born in a world that has justice and equality, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, religion, and many more variables. I would like to be born in a society that the government is not known to be corrupt, and greedy for wealth. A world where we can trust our government a hundred percent. I would like to be born in a world that inequality does not exist. No inequality of income, no inequality of housing, no inequality of opportunities. A society with no racism. I would like to live in a society that is the opposite of the words said by Wu-tang, “cash rules everything around me”.

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4. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear?
   I found the presentation to be interesting and informative. I found the section about functional and personal distribution to be especially interesting because of different theorists used either of them (except for Picketty who attempts to combine them). I understood the fact that the theorist used either personal or functional distribution because of the data that is available to them but I am still a little unclear about how to define personal distribution. I understand that microdata is used to create personal distribution but how does it measure inequality between individuals? Would the use of microdata still create groups? Even if it’s smaller groups like gender plus race instead of just gender, isn’t that still a kind of functional data?
   2. From the reading what is not clear?
   The Milanović reading was pleasantly and surprisingly palatable. I appreciate the candid and straightforward use of language because I was able to read and digest the information, attributes that are often lost in older economic and sociological works. Nevertheless, I was still left a little confused about the reduction of the “educational premium” (p.47) that Milanović describes. Does Milanović mean that because adding a year of education in a capitalist society will increase one’s salary but there is no such increase in a socialist society is a result of a lack of value attributed to education in a socialist country? Or is he alluding to something along the lines of the egalitarian characteristics of a society rooted in socialism?
   3. Given the video on the Industrial Revolution, describe the main characteristics of society before and after the Industrial Revolution
   The main characteristics of society before the Industrial Revolution includes a clear line between the poor and the rich: the aristocrats and the people who worked their land, raised their children, and did their housework (who enjoyed far fewer fruits of their labor). This system had been in place for hundreds of years. After the Industrial Revolution, work conditions became poorer and the working class was sorely exploited in textile mills. Even children as young as five years old were forced to work egregious hours. A lack of housing resulted in unsanitary urban slums. After the Industrial Revolution, the gap between aristocrats and the working class was widened; despite humanitarian efforts like the inception of unions and associations that regulated work hours and conditions.
   4. Given the video on John Rawls, what is the veil of ignorance?
   The veil of ignorance is concerned with the privilege of affluent members of society that, because of their way of life, are not forced to consider the poor/unfair circumstances that pervade the lives of other members of society. The veil of ignorance is a thought experiment created by Rawls that forces everyone to consider what kind of society they could be born into if they were in a conscious state before birth and were subjected to a completely random chance of being born into any family at any social class in any part of the world. Thus, the veil of ignorance allows us to decide what needs to be improved about society to create an ideal one.

   5. Write down the country or describe the society you would like to be born in if you had no information regarding your family background or ascriptive characteristics (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc). Why?
   The society I would like to be born into without any information regarding my sociodemographic characteristics, genetic disposition, etc. would be one that does not yet exist. Global and persistent disparities in housing, education, obesity, infant mortality, etc. make the veil of ignorance incredibly frightening to consider. As a black male in present-day America, I am stereotyped and mistreated enough to understand that my chance at the lottery of the veil of ignorance has already resulted in less than perfect circumstances. Even though some countries have very low rates of inequality, no country has perfect equality. I am unafraid of some people being very rich, but the risk of being born very poor would forever impact my entire life course. It is common knowledge in public health that one’s zip code is often more telling than one’s genetic code. Therefore, there is no country nor society, yet, I feel would offer an entirely fair chance at my shot of life.

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5. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear?
   1. The PowerPoint presentation was a little confusing because it was all data and some of the interpretations of the data I did not understand. Some of the graphs had too much drawing so I had to take my time and review it over. I was able to understand a few things because of the reading we did earlier and some of the information was reviewed in class. I understand the comparing of income and consumption inequality. I was able to understand the breakdown of some of the data because it is categorized into different groups which makes it easier to understand.

   From the reading what is not clear?

   2. The reading is detailed and interesting as it gave a deep analysis of income and wealth inequality in the different timeline and era. At first, I disagreed with the fact there is good and bad inequality but as I read along, I was able to grasp what he was saying. So far, the reading is straightforward and I understand each section I read so far. I like the fact the reading breaks down the definition of each word it introduced and gives examples because it gave me a better overview of the message the writer wants to send.

   3. Given the video on the Industrial Revolution, describe the main characteristics of society before and after the Industrial Revolution

   In the late 17th hundredth most laborers work activities were done in the field on lands they did not own but was owned by the aristocrats. The landowners and laborers relied upon each other for centuries but the introduction of a new innovation changes the way people lived and work. A new machine replaced hand laborer for cheaper price and work was done faster. The work was done inside of a factory instead on field. Goods were able to transport easily around the world. Even though the industrial revolution created more jobs and economic mobility for some. The environment became polluted due to the demand for goods and services and eager to generate profit. Also, it causes the exploitation of workers including children. They were overworked and earn little to nothing. This video highlighted the labor movement regarding the change of industrial revolution and labor struggle. Workers and reformers beginning to join Labor unions and associations to protect workers against exploitation and to gain better benefits. Now as times change, a new innovation is created for example, in today’s society we lived in a technological revolution where we have different access to connect with anyone around the world and worker anywhere.

   4. Given the video on John Rawls, what is the veil of ignorance?

   The veil of ignorance is to imagine yourself in a conscious and brilliant state before our birth that placed us in a position that hinders us from knowing what we are going to born into. Behind this veil, you do not know yourself, what skills and abilities you have, the position you will born into in society or if the police and other system will treat you. If we have no idea of the world we will born into which society we will choose because it is safer to enter. The veil of ignorance gave us a tool of critique of our current situation that allows us to be freed and create equality among all because we know what is right and just.

   Write down the country or describe the society you would like to be born in if you had no information regarding your family background or ascriptive characteristics (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc). Why?

   I would like to be born in a society that everyone is equal no matter the color of your skin or social status. A world where everyone should have access to free education and healthcare. We only eat what we grow. This means no processed food and we only intake organic produce food which will increase our life span and lower the chance of diseases. A world where everyone is kind and supportive and live as one. A world where we take care of nature and protect it. A world where the school system is provided with all the resources that is needed to advance the student education.

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6. Gabriel Ramos

   1.- From going over the power point, the only thing I had a bit of trouble understanding was the concept of functional distribution and personal distribution. I found myself having to constantly re-watch the slide because I wasn’t sure how the timeline of their lives correlated to those forms of distribution. I did understand however the simple differences between the two, I just wasn’t able to piece everything together perfectly. Everything else within the power point seemed pretty clear and understandable such as the gini and the graphs shown. I would only have to re-watch the presentation to attempt at piecing everything together in a better way.

   2.- Based on reading the text, the main thing I had trouble understand was the forms of distribution as I stated in the previous question. Having to do with personal and functional distribution and how the correlate to what is going on. Most of the other points explained within the text were somewhat reasonable to make sense of. The information regarding Atkinson and the gini were already things I had an idea of from our previous assignment and lecture posts, therefore that wasn’t too difficult to understand. However, I am still a bit confused on the concepts of distribution.

   3.- The Industrial Revolution was a major shift in labor for many parts of the world. Before that era, the life style and labor for many was through agriculture. This revolved around an aristocratic society where the lower class were treated as servants for those of upper class that lived wealthy and in manors. These people thrived and profited off of the labor of those in lower classes. As soon as the Industrial Revolution occurred, machines replaced these jobs due to being more efficient which was the main characteristic of this era where people operated on machines to produce things quicker and cheaper. On the other hand, a negative characteristic to this era was the fact that it caused pollution to increase ridiculously and implemented to the use of children to work in dangerous environments.

   4.- The veil of ignorance can be best described as a state of mind that has you think of yourself before birth and what circumstance of life you’d be placed in. This was interesting to learn about because it relates to how much of a gap there is in terms of global inequality. By imagining yourself in your mother’s womb, its interesting to know how different and random life can be. For example, say you were born to a rich family in California compared to someone living in a low class area somewhere in the United Kingdom. This places the question of asking ourselves where we would like to live at without knowing the circumstances of that life.

   5.- Taking into consideration, John Rawls’ veil of ignorance, if I had to describe a society to live in, I would place myself in one that simply focuses on the balance and justice of life. This type of society would have to be one that is ran by an actual “democratic” government that imposes equality among the entire country. One that helps those in desperate need and doesn’t function off of shaming others for their color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. On the other hand, its reality know that there is no such thing as a perfect world but one without the racism, greed, corruption, and inequality of income and opportunity would be nice and ideal.

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7. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear?
   Everything is the power point was extremely clear

   2. From the reading what is not clear?
   Everything was clear, even though I might go over that chapter one more time to get a way better understanding.

   3. Given the video on the Industrial Revolution, describe the main characteristics of society before and after the Industrial Revolution
   The main characteristics from the Industrial Revolution is how industrialization changed the economy, people’s way of living and how people provided for their families. Some main points from the video, was how due to industrialization, pollution started because of the factories, lack of housing created urban slums because of factories being built, and the exploitation of children workers due to the high demands of goods. Even though industrialization brought wealth for some and provided jobs for many there were also cons.

   4. Given the video on John Rawls, what is the veil of ignorance?
   The veil of ignorance is method or process to explore ideas about equality.

   5. Write down the country or describe the society you would like to be born in if you had no information regarding your family background or astrictive characteristics (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc). Why?

   The society that I would like to live in hypothetically speaking, would be a society of equality. Everyone gets treated the same. The same education, healthcare, living and at least decent pay that can provide a great life without stress and poverty. I think everyone should be on the same page and if not at least given the same equal opportunity as the next person.

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8. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear?

   I was able to grasp a lot of the concepts, but for me at least Social arrangements. I did not get to hear what you were saying because the audio went out for me. So, I’m not too sure how the graph is supposed to work.

   2. From the reading what is not clear?

   Will China Survive in 2048? I am very confused. All the vignettes I was able to understand theme and answer his questions, but I can’t seem to understand china in 2048? I do understand that, the regions have different levels of GDP, but ho exactly does that play out in regarding 2048. And can seven countries exist in one? I couldn’t tell if it was a clear no.

   3. Given the video on the Industrial Revolution, describe the main characteristics of society before and after the Industrial Revolution

   The poorer people did not own the lands, the aristocrats did, but the poorer people got to work on the fields. The aristocrats were able to live refined live in absolute elegance, while the servants raised their children, and did the household duties. They worked together and depended on each other for their lively hoods. After the industrial revolution, society changed. Food, clothes, and coal became more affordable. Many people moved from their villages to industrial towns where all the work was. Emerging a new social class, called the working class. Although some were richer and there was more work, many workers were exploited, an increase on pollution, and slums were created.

   4. Given the video on John Rawls, what is the veil of ignorance?

   The veil of ignorance is imaging yourself in a conscious imaginative state before you were born without any knowledge of your place in society, surrounding yourself in a veil of ignorance. Not knowing what your parents would be like, what neighborhood you’ll live in, what school’s you will attend, or what can the hospitals offer you. Pondering the question to ourselves, “what type of safe society would do I want to enter?”. The veil of ignorance takes away any thought of those who have done well, to the realities of entering society like the United States.

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9. 1. The PowerPoint was super straight forward, it broke down important ideas from the reading that I already felt pretty comfortable with. As a visual leaner, I really appreciated seeing Kuznets’ inverted U curve because I got a better sense of how the time period influenced Kuznets understanding of inequality. By time period, I’m referring to the social changes that came with the Industrial Revolution as society shifted from an agricultural (beginning of the U curve), to the 1st phase of industrialization (peak of the U curve), and lastly the impact of government distribution would have on inequality (end of the U curve).
   2. For some parts of the reading, I had to read the sentences a few times in order to really understand the content, but I feel comfortable with the material. Sometimes the way certain things are worded are a bit tricky but that’s about it. I found a short two-minute video that explained diminishing marginal utility, and that really helped me understand the concept. The ice-cream example used to explain diminishing marginal utility in the reading made sense, but I just need a little extra help to really understand it. One thing I did find a bit confusing was the difference between the welfarist approach versus a “sophisticated welfarist approach.” Would a sophisticated welfarist approach, not require the sum of utilities of all the individuals?
   3. Once the world changed to an Industrial Era, we see that agricultural and domestic work were no longer the basis of everyday life. There were drastic advancements in technology which allowed machines to be powered by water, steam, and coal. These machines quickly replaced farmers and domestic housewives and servants. Machines were cheap, yet fast and effective, which allowed goods to be produced faster than ever before. People began to move from rural to urban areas where they could find jobs as workers in factories. During this time, the high demand for goods led workers to be exploited, children included. Workers and reformers protested to the government in hopes that they would establish laws that protected workers’ rights and put a limit working hours.
   4. The veil of ignorance is a theoretical way to think of how not knowing ones’ position in society will allow for us to be introduced to society as impartial human beings. Since behind this veil, we don’t “know” of a society where there are social injustices like our current one (where some people are at an advantage compared to others), would any individual want to go into any random society? Rawls says that any participant in the experiment will want to be introduced to a society where opportunities are equal to everyone. Rawls theory allows individuals to think about current injustices within our society, as if they were behind the veil or ignorance.
   5. I would like to think that the society I am born into is free of inequality, discrimination, and poverty. I would hope that it is a society that is governed by the people. I would like to be born into a world where there is no hate or crime, just peace. I know it sounds like some fairytale, but I truly just want for everyone to be happy and equal. No one is better than the other person, we are just living beings discovering the possibilities of the world. We all have access to opportunities and to the communities that we have helped built and we support one another.

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10. 1. From the powerpoint, I thought that just about everything was clear. However, I did have to play a few of the slides over because the change in topic was sudden so it was a lot to grasp and I wanted to fully understand before I moved on.
    2. In the reading, I didn’t really understand the second assumption of the fiscal data explanation. Also, I did have to look up a few of the words and terms because the examples and definitions in the reading didn’t really seem to work for me but I understood it.
    3. The video on the Industrial Revolution showed and gave insight of changes in the world. Before the industrial revolution, society was more so that everybody worked for the benefit of each other. In this time everything was necessarily of equal gain but it was somewhat a fair exchange for just about everyone. After the industrial revolution, it began a clear showing of the exploitation of people to meet supply demands for economic gain and the introduction of machinery to the means of production so that things could be mass produced. As the video mentioned, it came with environmental impacts such as pollution of areas and the air, and created an issue of no housing and bad living conditions in some areas. The industrial revolution in a way also brought income inequality because it made some people rich and some just worked to make people rich.
    4.The veil of ignorance is the concept of not being exposed to the wrongs in society so it makes you think about where you’ll be if you were not placed in the position you are in currently. This allows one to see what the world would be like if individual differences did not factor into peoples chances and opportunities as well as everyday life. I think this is a good way to reflect on life in general because it allows you to step into the shoes of another and experience things from a different perspective. It also helps to learn, as well as in a way overlook things you’ve been taught so that you can be open to new views and form new ideas.
    5. If I had no information regarding any of these factors, I would want to be living in a society that would treat me as an equal to everyone else and not see the individual differences between people. Meaning that my chances or opportunities in life wouldn’t be affected and or set me back and the same for others. I would also want to live in a society that doesn’t exploit people for money, and makes sure that nobody lives too much of a lavish life than another. Another thing, I would want to live in a society that doesn’t look at necessities as luxuries, like housing, healthcare and education. In this society, I would also like for people to work towards a common good and be able to coexist with each other peacefully.

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11. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear
    In the powerpoint I was confused about comparing income and consumption inequality. The part a found unclear was when you said you can have zero income but you can not have zero income. I thought those two things would go hand in hand because wouldn’t you need an income to survive, even if you were living off your savings? The saving will eventually run out and you wouldn’t have anything to live off on.

    2. From the reading what is not clear?
    In the reading I found the section that was unclear was How does inequality change with the income level of a society?. I was a little confused about the 80/20 law. I didn’t know a little percentage can have a big outcome so as big percentage can have a little outcome. If you can in class the next time we meet can you explain that section please.

    3.Given the video on the Industrial Revolution, describe the main characteristics of society before and after the Industrial Revolution
    Before the industrial Revolution the main characteristics of society was that aristocrats (the people who own the land) lived in elegant manor houses and had servants raising their children also they did their house work while most people worked on the fields that didn’t own land. Inventors found ways to improve with newly advanced machines. The machines were able to do the work of 50 people. During the revolution there were children employed to work in the factories. They started working as young as 5 years old. According to the video a 10 year old explained her work day as having a “5am to 7pm shift with one half hour for breakfast and dinner. They would get paid two dollar per week”. After the Industrial Revolution the main characteristics of society is as the video states that “we are in another revolution, a technological revolution called a global village”. As technology advances we are able to do everything from the comfort of our own homes.

    4.Given the video on John Rawls, what is the veil of ignorance?
    The veil of ignorance is before birth we are not able to see what family we are going to be born into. We can be born into a family that is rich or a family that is poor. Someone coming from a rich family would have a silver spoon given to them while someone coming from a poor family wouldn’t have the opportunities. It is an experiment that shows the injustice of certain families in society. Many people don’t have the opportunities to change their options therefore it leaves them in the same cycle for the next generations to come.

    5. Write down the country or describe the society you would like to be born in if you had no information regarding your family background or ascriptive characteristics (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc). Why?
    Although this is an interesting question I wouldn’t want to live in a society or country where I have no information regarding your family background or ascriptive characteristics because that would be a boring society. I would want to know a little bit about my family history to understand myself a little more. For example, lets say I love eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every night before I go to bed, and my mom or dad did the same thing every night. I wouldn’t know that if I didn’t have a family background. In a way this helps and mold us into the person we are today, without knowing we could be lost in society.

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12. 1. The PowerPoint presentation was pretty much straight forward. Knowing how to construct and calculate certain graphs because of previous work made me understand it even more. One thing I had a little trouble understanding was comparing income and consumption inequality in how one can have zero income but still have consumption.

    2. Although the reading was lengthy I enjoyed how uncomplicated the language was, it was straight forward. It did a good job of breaking down inequality. I still had to go back and re-read a couple of sections.

    3. Before the Industrial Revolution people labored on fields. The landowners and the individuals that worked for them depended on each other to do their work in order to survive. But surely innovations started to take over, machines were built that were powered by water, steam, and coal. Most if not all inventions did the same work that workers would do but faster and cheaper (which means people started to lose jobs). One machine attached to a spinning wheel did the work of 50 workers. While factories were being built people started to move into industrial towns. These factories employed hundreds of people in the result created pollution. Factory owners learning that they were gaining more profit started exploiting their workers. As little as five-year-olds then started to work earning two dollars a week working from 5 am till 7 pm with thirty-minute breaks for lunch and dinner. Fast-tracking into after the Industrial Revolution it is called the “Global Village” as said in the video, we are living in a time where we have the technology and have the whole world at our fingertips.

    4.The Viel of Ignorance is an experiment where you can envision yourself in a position where you can choose where and how you want to live and who you want to be. It is a method of determining your society. From watching the video it seems to me that John Rawls focuses mostly on human fairness.

    5. Describing the country or society one would like to be born into is complicated. Everyone talks about inequality and how things can be better but is there ever one right answer. If i were to create my own society there would be equal justice, less income inequality, better housing, equal opportunity, free health care, better schools for all giving students a true head start to their future. A world without racism, there wouldn’t be a top 1% because no one should have that much more money than the rest of the world.

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13. 1. The PowerPoint was clear overall from the data sources to comparing income and consumption inequality. After this week’s class, I understand more about different household incomes (disposable or gross) and the grand theory by Simon Kuznets explaining how inequality came about to rise from the times of agriculture with low income but low inequality to the government redistribution. On the last slide about comparing the different social arrangements. The graph showed inequality and social welfare function. This slide did not have enough information, which made me search for the topic online. The slide, I think, did not have the audio explaining the different variables.

    2. The reading explained many of the way inequality is measured and why would research takes one approach over the other. However, when the author talks about how there should be some inequality for people to have ambition and motivation. After reading chapter 1, the concept of utilities was challenging to understand. The example of the book didn’t explain what exactly is a utility. After I looked it up, the example talked about the consumption of goods or a service, which made more sense since more jobs are about giving service and consumers.

    3. The late 1700s was all about agriculture as the primary source of income for everyone. The worked in the field, and the owners of the land benefited from the workers. After the industrial revolution came about, work moved away to factories. The factories generated faster with the help of fewer workers, making clothing and other goods. The Industrial revolution brought cheaper goods, the demand for less expensive products made factories exploit their workers to the point of hiring children for less pay. However, we shift to the technology revolution, where technology has changed again how people work in their everyday life.

    4. The veil of ignorance is base on the theory of not knowing what our life would be like after birth. We would be conscious, but without knowing where or how we would be born into the world. This means you can be born in the royal family or with parents that do not have enough money to feed themselves. John Rawl’s definition of the veil of ignorance is rolling the dice without knowing where you can be born, which can be challenging to gamble because life in the world has many injustices to the people that do not have much to live.

    5. The life I would like to live in if I have no information about my family would be new Zealand because it is a socialist country. The injustice in this country is less than other countries with universal health care and equal opportunity for the bare necessities a person needs to live. The inequality around different countries with billionaires who earn more money will never be able to spend and the people who do not have the

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14. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear?
    I thought that your powerpoint was very clear being that the voice notes were attached. I was very confused when I saw the diagram on slide 10 because I knew prior to the slide that Denmark had a low inequality line and thought it should have been listed at the top of the Redistributions Through Tax and Transfers Chart. However, after listening to the voice notes I understood clearly that the countries listed at the bottom have the lowest inequality lines and the countries on the top (USA & Ireland) have the highest inequality lines.
    2. From the reading what is not clear?
    In the reading section that intrigued me the most was the one where Kuznets’ U diagram was discussed. I agree that inequality could be viewed as a U shape making the midpoint inequality and the upper parts of the U equality. The reading was very thorough and descriptive for me, clear enough to understand the main ideas of each section. The only trouble I had was how many pauses I needed to take to look up words used in economics that I hadn’t known the meaning of.
    3. Given the video on the Industrial Revolution, describe the main characteristics of society before and after the Industrial Revolution.
    Society’s pre- Industrial Revolution was one filled with two kinds of Americans, workers or land owners. Many families were similar in the sense that agriculture was a big part of their lives and helped gain money for most American families. Those who worked on these plantations/ farms hardly earned any income to provide for their family. Hands on labor was a necessary part of an agricultural workers life before heavy machinery was provided after the Industrial Revolution. After the Industrial Revolution the movement of machinery was pushed and it helped boost the economy by making labor easier for individuals to get work done quicker and more efficiently. Because there was an increase in factory jobs many low income families were able to find jobs in the city and stop working for farms. This in-turn caused the agriculture industry to be affected as well as the level of equality.
    4.Given the video on John Rawls, what is the veil of ignorance?
    The veil of ignorance is a social experiment where individuals are asked to dig deeper into their lives. Rawl explains that there is an imaginary veil before we are born, where we do not know anything about society’s standards and ideologies. If we were to be born after this, what world would we want to be born too? This is Rawls’s way of having individuals evaluate their environment and think of all the rights and equality people would want in their society. This in turn allows individuals to think about today’s society and what they wish could be better for a more healthier lifestyle.What a wealthy person might ask for a poor person wouldn’t, this experiment shows the difference between individuals with privilege and access to opportunity and those who do not.
    5. Write down the country or describe the society you would like to be born in if you had no information regarding your family background or ascriptive characteristics (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc). Why?
    If I had the opportunity I would be born in a society that was ruled by leaders who actually wanted to better their people by pushing for equality of all individuals and promoted healthy lifestyles. Although women are looked down upon a lot in society I would still want to be a woman because I believe we have the power to bring in babies to this world and I think that is the biggest gift to ask for. Economically I would want to be a democratic country that was run by individuals who want to make the gap smaller between the poor and the wealthy. I would push for the acceptance of all religions, sexual orientations, including free health care to all persons with disabilities. I believe that if you give a person the tools for success they will be healthier and happier to work and provide for their country and family. There is more pride for a country that loves its people.

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15. 1. The presentation was pretty clear and informative. The data was very helpful in helping visualize some of the things that the reading was referring to. The second graph on the 12th slide was a little confusing. It’s the change referring to the increase or decrease from the Gini coefficients in 2008 compared to the ones in 2013? I was also wondering if Kuznets hypothesis has been proven wrong in other countries besides the US and the UK and in which countries it has been proven correct.

    2. The reading is pretty clear and Milanovic does a good job at breaking down complicated terms making them easier to understand. Something I am a little confused about is functional distribution because it seems to me that researcher like Atkinsons, who use personal distribution, seem to address functional distribution. We’ve talked about inequality and Gini coefficients, comparing the richest to the poor. Isn’t that comparing social classes like it was done with functional distribution, so what makes them so different?

    3. Before the Industrial Revolution, land was owned by few rich people. The working class worked the land of these landowners and the economy was mostly agricultural. Since the economy was mostly agricultural, so most people worked on these fields or as servants in the houses of the landowners. Landowners and their workers greatly depended on each other, since the landowners needed the human labor they provided, and the workers needed land to live in. After the Industrial Revolution, there was less dependence on human labor due to the creation of machines that could do the job cheaper and fasters. The creation of factories led to workers moving to more rural places where these were located. There was lack of housing at cities resulting in the first urban slums. The high demand of goods led to the exploitations of workers who worked long hours for little pay. This included children, who were also exploited as workers in factories. Eventually unions were formed and laws where created, which prevented employers from exploiting works ar much as they did.

    4. The veil of ignorance is a thought experiment in which we are asked to imagine ourselves in a conscious state before birth and with no idea of the circumstances that we’d be born into. Since we know nothing about the circumstances that we’ll be born into, we have to think about what kind of society we would feel safe being born into. This experiment forces us to realize what is wrong with our own society and what an equal, or a better, society would look like.

    5. I would like to live in a more equal society, where people did not think of others as less than because of the color of their skin, the place where they come from, their gender or who do they choose to like. Although I like a lot of socialist policies, I don’t think I would like to live in a completely socialist society. That may be because I know very little of what life looks like in socialist countries, but I do feel like capitalism can be made to be more fair and humane than it is today. I believe that there are natural given rights and education and healthcare are two of those rights. I believe that both should be free, that no one should end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt or health insurance debt. This question it’s very hard to answer because in thinking of what is wrong with our society and what directly affects me, most of it is systemic (systemic racism, xenophobia, classism, etc) and it’s hard to answer this question without suggesting to throw the whole system away. I do think that there are very obvious things that we can fix that wouldn’t end up in a completely different society.

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16. 1. The presentation was very organized, which made it easier to comprehend. The data helped me visually understand the difference. As I was having trouble understanding the properties of a personal and functional distribution before the presentation.

    2. The reading was very clear to me as it provided strong reasoning to the concepts. For example, I was having trouble visualizing the Gini value but the reading and presentation helped me put it more into reality. Sometimes it is difficult to read and compare it to the reality I live in.

    3. Life was very different before the Industrial Revolution in all aspects. Most people except Aristocrats worked for the Aristocrats such as servants, or land work. This system had been occurring for centuries as we now. The revolution replaced handworks such as locomotives or agriculture tools and introducing mass production. Through this, everyone’s lifestyle had to be adjusted. A new class was slowly growing, the working class. Although many benefited, our environment did not. This greatly increased our pollution, factories, lack of housing, and unsafe work environment.

    4.The veil of ignorance is the Idea of our innocent state before our birth. This is the clean slate before we take on our society. The veil of ignorance allows individuals apart of society to the difference in classes in our world today. The fact that where who or when we were born affects our future. This experiment differentiates the wealthy with the less fortunate. Some things people are privileged to grow up with can be a dream for others. The biggest example of this would be the right to free education.

    5. If I could choose one place to be born in disregarding my current background in Denmark. The reason I specifically choose this place is that Tuition is free for all Denmark citizens. This aligns with my values as I believe education holds the power for reducing the inequality rate.

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17. 1. The presentation was very organized, which made it easier to comprehend. The data helped me visually understand the difference. As I was having trouble understanding the properties of a personal and functional distribution before the presentation.
    2. The reading was very clear to me as it provided strong reasoning to the concepts. For example, I was having trouble visualizing the Gini value but the reading and presentation helped me put it more into reality. Sometimes it is difficult to read and compare it to the reality I live in.
    3. Life was very different before the Industrial Revolution in all aspects. Most people except Aristocrats worked for the Aristocrats such as servants, or land work. This system had been occurring for centuries as we now. The revolution replaced handworks such as locomotives or agriculture tools and introducing mass production. Through this, everyone’s lifestyle had to be adjusted. A new class was slowly growing, the working class. Although many benefited, our environment did not. This greatly increased our pollution, factories, lack of housing, and unsafe work environment.
    4. The veil of ignorance is the Idea of our innocent state before our birth. This is the clean slate before we take on our society. The veil of ignorance allows individuals apart of society to the difference in classes in our world today. The fact that where who or when we were born affects our future. This experiment differentiates the wealthy with the less fortunate. Some things people are privileged to grow up with can be a dream for others. The biggest example of this would be the right to free education.
    5. If I could choose one place to be born in disregarding my current background in Denmark. The reason I specifically choose this place is that Tuition is free for all Denmark citizens. This aligns with my values as I believe education holds the power for reducing the inequality rate.

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18. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Everything in the powerpoint was very well explained, I was able to understand all of it. Starting from the information regarding the whereabouts of the data on property tax records covering several centuries where I was able to observe how it progressed into more detailed and precise. To a further understanding on the difference between consumption and income it was more thoroughly explained than in the reading in my point of view.
    From the reading what is not clear? The reading was also pretty clear and having the assignments also helps read the reading in a more detailed manner. The reading along with the assignments helps highlight keypoints being mentioned by the author. However, it is a little hard to keep track of the different sociologist and economist ideology in a sense that it’s hard remembering what was whose idea and or outlook.
    Given the video on the Industrial Revolution, describe the main characteristics of society before and after the Industrial Revolution Some of the main characteristics of society before the industrial revolution given the information from the video were reliance on one another to coroporate and form a part of society from aristocrats to farmers. However, we can see that after the industrial revolution as time went on and technology progressed making industrialization a primary form of life it caused the creation of a new group of people called workers as mentioned in the video. This made reliance on one another a less important charactreistic than it was pre-industrialization. And became a society that can be described as globalized, more civil, and mass production savvy.
    Given the video on John Rawls, what is the veil of ignorance? The video on John Rawls explains what the veil of ignorance is. It is described as a simple way to explain how unfair society was. He explained how unprecedented the life we will live is. The way this is done is by explaining things from a fetus perspective roaming the earth with an undetermined future just like playing the lottery he asked to imagine which society would be the ideal society youd like to enter not considering any personal factors but instead thinking about what is fair and right.
    Write down the country or describe the society you would like to be born in if you had no information regarding your family background or ascriptive characteristics (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc). Why? The society I’d like to be born into would be one where none of those ascriptive characteristics affected the way my life turned out or are used to create a prejudice perception of me. In a fair world it would not matter and there would be equal opportunities for everyone to progress and be a proactive member of society. Basic necessities would be available for everyone and being born across the world would not be deemed bad or good because everywhere would be livable and just. Only cultures and languages would change and having a sustainable environment would be a common priority all around the world.

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