13 May 2022 Friday
Spatial Inequality
The issue of inequality is, in a way, it is like the lottery. Where you were born, raised, educated, worked, and retired is of great importance. Even the probability of having better conditions with our efforts is determined by the barriers around the piece of land we are on. The kilometers between the regions carry much more than the physical distance. Especially in areas with weak social infrastructure, escaping the clamp of inequality becomes one of the biggest problems for every new generation.
In societies with high inequality, it is unlikely that the children of the lowest segment may escape the trap of poverty when they grow up. It is difficult for the children of these families, who can’t even compensate for certain nutritional requirements, to reach a position that meets the market’s needs when they grow up; no need to mention that they will not get an adequate educational skills. Children of these poor families are excluded from the market since they are poor, but ironically, that is the exact reason why these families are poor. The result of this vicious circle means inequality through generations, and polarization becomes persistent.
The poverty experienced by people who fall into the spatial poverty trap is likely to be characterized by the combined disadvantage: low share of any investment, low integration into fragmented markets, social and political exclusion, and inadequate access to public services. These people are likely to be not only income-poor but also severely and chronically poor.
Although the evaluation of the spiral of inequality as both a moral and socio-economic problem goes back a long time, we still may not have reached a sufficient level for the spread of this idea. In addition, the one-size-fits-all approach simply makes us lazy when struggling to solve problems. If we collectively present the same recipe for all the stories of inequality, it is not an indication that we have reached the actual truth, instead of that we do not take history to study and examine each economy according to its binding constraints and particular regions. What gives us extra responsibility here is that economists’ jobs are directly related to people’s living standards. For human life, we cannot sit back and take shelter in laws that are far from reality. As Stiglitz said: Inequality does not arise by itself; it is created. If we can understand the root of inequality, we can focus on ways to reduce it.
R.A.Demet TAÇ
