Sample Economic Research Paper on Sports and Economic Inequality

Sports and Economic Inequality

Introduction

Sports refers to all categories of physical and competitive activities that entail organized participation to advance the skills of the participants. It is a two sided context that involves both winners and losers. It is also an activity that relates to physical athleticism that hold main competitions such as Olympic Games.

Clearly, sports are governed by rules to enhance a consistent and fair competition.  (White, 1999). For instance, individuals who are crowned as winners either cross the line first or score plenty of goals. Furthermore, results of how participants performed are recorded to be reported later in sports news. During competition, players or athletes are classified based on their outcome.

I agree that in sports, not all participants are given the same attention due to inequality. For instance, female athletes in society have been subjected to challenges when they are not paid equally in contrast to their male counterparts. It is apparent that in sports world, the issue of payment has become worse based on gender lines in US society. Besides facing paying disparity in sports, the media also fails to create awareness about females. In this regard, it gives more attention to men during the news. As a result, this makes it appear that only the men are relevant in the current sports. 

In sports, women are recognized as world champions but still encounter inequality. The following are solutions that could help to reduce inequality in sports;

Solutions to Sports Inequality

• The wage gap needs to be reduced to facilitate equality in sports activities. This is vital to motivate all sports participates in spite of their genders to excel.
• The society requires to change its perspective and perceive women as heroes instead of ordinary mothers and caregivers. This will aid the public to appreciate female athletes based on their profession and not sexualized objects.
• Media coverage need to change and give all sports participants’ equal attention as a way of encouraging them. This is to prove that covering sports by women also pays similar to that of men (Leonard, 1998).
• The society needs to recognize efforts that women put in sports. This is by ensuring that they change their perspectives and consider women as best players. They need to stop thinking that when women are crowned powerful in sports, they go against traditional values of overpowering men.  In this regard, individuals from both genders need to take sports a positive activity that makes them grow.
• To address on equality in sports, people need to focus on the ability of the participant to play the game. If a woman is good in a certain sport activity, she should be granted the same opportunity as men to pursue her dreams. This is vital in ensuring that there is balance in sports activities.  

Economic Inequality

I agree with the fact that there is economic inequality because of a huge gap between the rich and the poor. In this regard, the society has formulated variety of policies to eradicate inequality in the economy. However, this step has not enhanced any positive changes to restore equality. On the contrary, this only enriches wealthy individuals when it makes them to earn more money hence makes the situation worse. Additionally, the pro poor policies that are created to reduce this issue of inequality do not promote the general growth in the economy.

As a result, such policies contribute to economic inequality when they increase the rates of average incomes. Clearly, economic inequality is rampant when people concentrate on wrong strategies which further makes the situation worse. For instance, the economy is still encountering inequality as people think that taking funds from the rich to aid the poor will ease the condition. However, this turns out to be wrong when poor individuals stop working hard to improve the economy.

In this context, I support the fact that the society is still incurring economic inequality. This implies that the community needs to focus more on raising productivity. It is a vital step to enhance economic potential especially among the poor (Coakley, 1998). Study indicates that to enhance development in the economy, the government needs to invest well on activities that support talent of the young people such as sports. Improving on the condition of the sports is essential and beneficial to the economy because it increases the revenue. Furthermore, investing in modern technology is vital to help improve on the condition of sports and the entire economy of the state.

Evidently, economic inequality is on the rise but increasing its potential output will generate growth and riches to the economy. Currently, US citizens are perceived to be living in the richest nation. However, the reality is that most of the wealth is controlled by a few number of individuals. This further implies that the issue of income inequality and wealth has affected the economy in a great manner (White, 1999).

I concur with this topic because the aspect of income inequality and wealth has currently become a huge moral issue. For instance, developed countries such as United States is characterized by huge wealth and inequality in its returns. This is in contrast to other nations that have developed across the globe. In this regard, the gap between the rich and other ordinary citizens has increased due to economic inequality. Research indicates that since the previous years, riches has been transferred from the poor and middle class individuals to the rich in the society. According to the perspective of the economics, this kind of inequality is not acceptable and it needs to change.

Clearly, the society is attributed to economic inequality, which implies that something needs to be done to eradicate this condition. In spite of the fact that there is technology advancement in the community, the level of productivity is still down. The reason is because a large number of citizens spend most of their time working and still earn low salaries. Economic inequality is an issue that applies to gender. In this respect, both male and female need to be paid the same amount based on the nature of their jobs to reduce inequality. In addition, economic inequality is an issue that has subjected America to incur highest rates of poverty among children.

The reason is because resources are not balanced in the society. It is wrong when a particular family own plenty of riches in comparison to 130 million citizens who languish in poverty. Factors that contribute to this situation is that individuals in the billionaire class break the state’s regulation .This happens when they redistribute income and wealth to the most powerful citizens of the nation. I agree that economic inequality has become a serious issue in the society. In this regard, individuals under the wealthy class need to understand that they cannot proceed with their greed while their fellow citizens and their youngsters sleep hungry.

To balance the economy, people who are responsible need to stop sending jobs that belong to the state to other countries. It is clear that such activities render millions of individuals in jobless situations. There are various ways that leaders in a country can participate to solve this issue of economic inequality.

1. This is through ordering large and rich firms to pay taxes in a fair manner. In addition, the government need to stop the habit which allows various companies to shift their jobs and profits to other nations. It is apparent that they engage in such activities to avoid paying income taxes. For instance in US, the president has decided that he will enact tax on the rich individuals. This applies in situations when they caused millions of citizens to lose their life savings, jobs and homes.
2. Economic inequality can also be eradicated when there is increase in federal minimum wage. Clearly, no person should be subjected to work 40 hours in a week and still live in poverty conditions (Coakley, 1998).
3. It is vital for leaders to involve citizens in most of their contracts especially those that relate to improving infrastructure. For instance, if the government can invest approximately $ 1 trillion in a period of five years, it will earn jobs to 13 million citizens. They will work to improve various infrastructures such as ports and improve the situation of the economy.
4. There is also need to reverse trade policies with other nations. This implies that America needs to restore its economic equality by avoiding to conduct business with down wage countries. This is essential to avoid losing millions of jobs to states such as China. It also means that corporate dealers will require to sell their product in the country to ensure that citizens purchase them.
5. It is necessary for the government to invest funds to support the youth jobs programs as a way of rejuvenating the economy. This is through creating numerous jobs to end the rate of unemployment among the youth (Leonard, 1998). To improve on the economy, the society needs to put to an end the issue of joblessness among the youth by offering them jobs.
6. To end economic inequality, leaders need to fight for pay equity through ensuring that the Paycheck Fairness Act is signed into law. This step is essential to allow employees of both genders to earn the same share in relation to the nature of their jobs.
7. To recover the economy, the country needs to make both public universities and colleges’ tuition free.  This is to enable all students afford and access education without biasness. Clearly, economic inequality should not hinder hardworking students to move to the next academic levels after they excel. In this context, leaders also require to formulate projects that will sponsor them to avoid cases whereby they drop out from schools. It is evident that through education, children will be able to get good jobs hence boost the economy.
8. In America, the issue of economic inequality can be eradicated when they expand on social security. This can be accomplished by increasing the taxable income above $250,000. It is vital in curbing poverty conditions by ensuring that each citizen retire with respect and dignity.
9. Economic inequality can be solved when citizens are guaranteed their rights to access proper health care. This situation can only be possible through enacting the Medicare bill to benefit all payers in the health care system. In this regard, Americans need to join other industrialized nations across the globe to restore equality by offering proper health care to everyone.
10. It is important for leaders to assist workers to join unions to bargain for their benefits at work and avoid being undermined. It is also essential to check and ensure that large financial institutions operates with transparency. This is essential to facilitate flow of cash in society and help reduce on levels of poverty.

It is apparent that economic inequality is a major issue which has imposed pressure on the government. This has further made individuals in the authority to negotiate on ways to conduct trade on international levels. Analyzing the American economy, it is clear that inequality is a huge issue. This is evident when the government fails to fund social safety programs and to help raise wages of individuals in the low class. The fact that this inequality contributed to a huge gap between the wealthy and poor raised concern in the society. Furthermore, this trend was worrying because the economic future of individuals in the middle class was at stake.

Evidently, when the economy is encountering inequality, this pushes poor people to incur lower outcomes in health aspects (White, 1999). Economy changes in the nation and across different sections of the world contribute to decrease of labor unions. As a result, this has huge effect on equitation.   The economic policy can only be made strong only when there is improvement in the bargaining power. To handle the issue of economic inequality appropriately, it is essential to create and expand opportunities.

Accounting for inequality, I agree that the matter has become rampant in the American economy. Experts have revealed that increase in economic inequality is a threatening factor to the political institutions in American society. As a result, the effects of economic inequality accounts for all forms of political instability. This also applies to the condition that slows down growth of economy across the globe (Leonard, 1998).

 In the American society, inequality is a major reason that generate fights between Republicans and Democrats. This implies that both the costs and causes that attribute to income inequality are unclear. Additionally, the situation appears to be worse because numerous pro-growth policies are taking no measures to eradicate inequality. In some instances, they happen to allocate plenty of gains to individuals who are already earning high incomes hence makes inequality situation worse.  

Solutions to Income Inequality

Currently, economic policy is perceived to be a binary choice to offer assistance to the poor to enhance growth in the economy. To eradicate income inequality, the gap between the rich and individuals who live in poverty needs to be reduced.  This can be attained by;

• Breaking down social barriers by encouraging individuals in society to associate with all categories of people. This is in spite of their poverty situations hence concentrate on assisting them to grow economically. It is vital to get out of our comfort situation by discussing matters that pertain to income division.
•  Uniting and upgrading public schools to alleviate poverty situations from the society. This can be achieved by making education affordable and to be distributed in an equal manner. In this regard, education needs to create equal opportunities both to rich and poor children. This will further stop situations whereby the wealthy children attend private institutions that lack programs to support formal scholarships. Equality will also stop situations whereby poor children attend public schools that do not exhibit good results. To facilitate economic equality, education should fill the gap between the rich and the poor by uniting them.
• It is vital to raise minimum wages to help majority of low earners across the nation to survive in this economy that is incurring inflation (Coakley, 1998). Employers also need to work hard to enhance progress in their business to increase the rates of profits and the amount of wages that they pay their workers.
• The rich should be taxed using a reasonable rate to avoid situations where they get huge breaks. Clearly, the amount that is imposed on taxes should be used to promote port activities to facilitate success in the economy. This is vital to ensure that all returns are shared among the rich and poor individuals in an equal manner.
• Allowing employees to share their ideas to enhance progress at the companies.  This implies that equality can be restored with aid of union membership. Through such unions, economic inequality is reduced when they help in recruiting a large number of workers.
• Stop donating huge amounts of money to support political campaigns. Currently, rich individuals use power and money to create influence during political campaigns. Apparently campaigns have become very expensive which implies that if such expenses are limited, economic equality will be restored.
• Participating randomly by allocating funds to the poor on a random basis as charity. Treating people in this manner means that we trust and perceive them to be equal to those who are ranked high in the society.

Conclusion

In essence, the solution to facilitate sport activities is by focusing on the tactics that will promote the welfare of citizens and promote economic equality. I agree that to enhance equality in sports, members of the society requires to recognize efforts that women put in sports. This is by ensuring that they change their perspectives and consider women as best players. They need to stop thinking that when women are crowned powerful in sports, they go against traditional values of overpowering men (White, 1999). In this regard, individuals from both genders need to take sports a positive activity that makes them grow. Furthermore, in sports both women and men should be awarded equal wages and be given same coverage from the media. Equally, economic inequality can be eradicated in society through empowerment of people. In this regard, technology is a vital aspect that can help to improve on the government policy. To facilitate balance and equality in the economy, all individuals need to pay taxes regardless of their rich status. This is vital in boosting people in poverty situations hence reduce economic inequality.

References

Coakley, J.J. (1998) Sport in Society (6th edn). Boston, MA: Irwin McGraw-Hill.

Leonard, W.M., II (1998) A Sociological Perspective of Sports (5th edn). Boston, MA: Allyn &    Bacon. Levine, L.W.
White, P. and Wilson, B. (1999) `Distinctions in the Stands: An Investigation of Bourdieu’s            “Habitus”, Socioeconomic Status and Sport Spectatorship in Canada’, International      Review for the Sociology of Sport 34: 245-264.