SY210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Inequality, Meritocracy, Visible Minority
Document Summary
Income inequality peter urmetzer and neil guppy (2009) document how, despite extensive and dramatic media attention to the extremely wealthy and the impoverished, most canadians belong to the middle income groups. Urmetzer and guppy argue, though, that in canada income is distributed unevenly. In 2005, the top 20% of canada"s families earned 46. 7% of income, and the bottom 20%, only 4. 1%. And, since 1981, the wealthy have been increasing their share of the national income. Mcmullin (2011: 195) adds that the incomes of visible minorities are below national averages, and that aboriginal canadians have the lowest incomes. In an international framework, income inequality in canada is lower than in the us, the uk and australia, but it is higher than in japan and sweden. Wealth inequality unlike income, wealth represents all of a person"s assets minus debts. These assets include, cash, stocks, real estate and durable goods, among others.