Impact of Inequalities on Social Capital, Well-being and Happiness

Running head: IMPACT OF INEQUALITIES
IMPACT OF INEQUALITIES
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1IMPACT OF INEQUALITIES
This essay discusses various issues of inequality in the society. There are many facets
of inequality which emerge from the uneven distribution of resources, through the norms of
allocation which engender the specific patterns along the lines of socially defined categories
of people. Inequality also refers to the differentiation penchants of the accession of social
goods. The factors of inequity revolve round the aspects that are brought about by the gap
associated with power, prestige, kinship, gender, age, ethnicity and religion. In addition to
this, source along with the amount of income freedom of speech, access to the health care
policies, education are the states through which the differentiation can be judged (Rothstein
& Uslaner, 2005). Inequality in any aspect has become a deeply rooted feature of the social
and economic sceneries. It is such a ban for t humanity that has proven stubbornly resistant to
attempted remedies. The inequality factors involve both economic as well as non-economic
facets such as social and cultural differences. These aspects fuel the trait of discrimination
that ultimately affect wellbeing of the people of the country. Beside this, the inequality
problems create differentiation among the citizens that lead to improper distribution of
power, privileges, opportunities and participation in improving the country’s social capital.
This essay discusses the deep-rooted impact of inequality in the non-economic aspects such
as social capital, well-being of the communities and happiness among the people of the
society.
Social capital: it is a type of cultural as well as economic capital that is closely linked
with the social networks function centrally. Social capital is used for explaining the upgraded
performance of different groups, high managerial performance and growth of the
entrepreneurial corporations that regulate the evolution of the communities by producing
public goods for common good. Social capital involves cultural capital, human capital, social
capital which aim to build mechanisms for changing the lives of the individuals, and all-
encompassing well-being of the communities. According to Lin (2000), the concept of social

2IMPACT OF INEQUALITIES
capital can be defined as proper investment and usage of embedded resources in the social
relations for expected returns. It chiefly depends upon two factors associated with quality or
quantity of the resources that the individuals or groups access and use. This concept emphasis
on the resources which remain embedded in the social relation of the resources. Secondly the
location of the resources in social network is also very important to enhance the likelihood of
the instrumental returns for example better jobs, high earnings, bonus, promotions,
recognition and most importantly the expressive returns in terms of good mental health. The
strength of the network leads to achievement of better social resources.
The theory of social capital emphasizes that the capacity of exploring or building
social capital and proper exploitation of the social resources are not always the same in all the
social groups. Sometimes, only acquirement of social resources may not lead to the proper
reception of expected returns. This is one of the chief reasons of increasing inequality in the
societal setting. The inequality in different types of capital, such as human capital and social
capital leads to the conflict in the society. As the social capital theory discusses that the
historical and organizational constructs have direct impact on the creation of inequality
among the social classes (Hero, 2003). There are some chief factors which ignite the issue of
inequality that are mainly associated with gender, age, race, class, ethnicity, culture and
religion. In one hand the common aspects bring together the groups that share similarities
among them and create scope for the conflict among the gainers and the deprives. As the
Marxist view of society states that there are two classes exist in the society and the economic
gap is the main reason of inequality. This heterogeneity leads to the groupings of the labor
class who are deprived of the necessary social resources. The discrepancy of capital
employment leads to broadening of gaps between the sections present in the society. The
principal explanation shared by the various capital theories posit that investment along with

3IMPACT OF INEQUALITIES
mobilization of investment can enhance the desirable results to the individuals or the
communities.
As mentioned before, the social inequalities largely depend upon the actors like
gender, race and ethnicity. In determining the location of the social networks, the resources of
the social actors like individuals, teams and communities have great importance. Hence there
is a great disparity in this field related to gender (Colombo, Franzoni & Rossi‐Lamastra,
2015). For instance, the male workers of the company have more resources in compared to
the female workers. The networks of male employees are consisted of both in and non-kin
resources like co-workers, neighbors, friends and advisors. These networks are vast in
number but are chiefly regulated by the variables associated with wage, employment and
family (Cleaver, 2005). On the other hand, the women have more kin networks than non-kin
networks hence have networks of better quality. This is how the inequality assists in the
prosperity as well as diversity of networks. In the aspect of gender iniquity for interesting
network diversity, it can be stated that the men employees are more adapt to the organizations
related to the economic and financial affairs whereas the women are attached in the
peripheral systems which focus on the domestic as well as community affairs (Aldrich &
Meyer, 2015). Men employees’ positions in the voluntary network are much focused to
provide access to the information about business opportunities, possible jobs and probabilities
for professional achievements.
In dealing with the inequalities in racial level it is seen that the discourse as well as
uniformity of behavior along with network are upheld by interaction on both the national as
well as local levels of the members of different racial communities. In dealing with the
inequalities, these socially backward people face problems (Lins, Servaes & Tamayo, 2017).
Despite the fact that they have access to the social care opportunities through various non-
governmental organizations, churches and governmental agencies but the issue of chronic