Global Inequality

To complete this essay assignment, you will be asked to compose a 5-page (double-spaced) academic
essay in response to the prompt below.

Your response is expected to construct a coherent and cohesive argument, to provide evidence in
support of your argument, to draw upon course concepts and vocabulary, to reflect a sociological
perspective, and to be written with correct grammar, spelling, and ASA-style citations.

Prompt:

"The top 10 percent of the world's population owns over 89 percent of global household wealth, and the
top 1 percent own over 50 percent." (Witt 2018).
In Chapter 11 of your Witt textbook, you learn that trends such as deindustrialization, off-shoring,
modernization, colonialism, neocolonialism, and exploitation have contributed to an ever-growing
increase in global wealth inequality. In your informed judgement, has this trend been an inevitable or
natural result of uncontrollable social processes? Or, has the present global wealth inequality resulted
from preventable, controllable circumstances? (Hint: One response tends toward the Functionalist
perspective, while the other tends toward the Conflict perspective).
In addition to answering this question, your task is to read a few current news articles that dig deeper
into these trends and construct an overarching, evidence-based argument. In your essay, please cite a
minimum of 3 articles from the list provided below. You may use outside news articles, but they must be
from reputable news outlets. Note that it is insufficient to merely summarize the article - you must
incorporate them into a cohesive argument.

• https://www.vox.com/a/new-economY-future/Premature-deindustrialization

 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-31495851

• https://en.unesco.org/inclusivepolicylab/news/can-universal-basic-income-solve-global-
inequalities

• https://unu.edu/news/news/global-income-inequality-up-or-down.html

• https://time.com/5508393/global-wealth-inequality-widens-oxfam/

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/pedrodacosta/2019/02/12/weaIth-inequaIity-is-way-worse-than-
you-think-and-tax-havens-play-a-big-role/
 https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22042019/climate-change-inequality-gdp-equator-africa-
russia-norway-canada