What Does It Mean To Be Rich Or Poor?

Submitted By wacky95
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Pages: 5
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What does it mean to be rich or poor? Most people would respond that it’s the

amount of money and resources they successfully maintain. But, what can cause someone

to become rich or poor? It’s one word, inequality. Inequality occurs all over the

world, due to the fact that every country has social classes, there is an uneven

distribution of resources.

Every country globalizes differently depending on their resources, and Europe is

no exception. Oil is a necessity in many aspects of peoples’ lives such as fueling cars,

factories, and homes. In Russia, they are planning to build a massive pipeline that will go

through the Baltic Sea. The pipeline its self offers benefits to Western Europe, while

Eastern Europe fears the Soviets might gain too much power. Russia is a large provider of

oil , around 28 percent (Kramer 1) and if it controls most of the oil, no one else will

benefit. They receive all the profits from the oil and if conflict were to occur, Russia

could turn off the oil as leverage. Another pipeline called the New Nord Stream pipeline

would supply Russia with its own separate supply line. They could shut off the oil supply

as a form of blackmail until their price was met. “Last January, for example,

Russia shut down a pipeline that crossed Ukraine, ostensibly over a dispute with

Ukraine on pricing and tariff fees. The shutoff left hundreds of thousands of homes in

southeastern Europe without heat and shuttered hundreds of factories for three weeks”

(Kramer 1). Russia demands certain prices, high prices to be exact and if another

country does not agree to the price, then there will be no business. The fact that they can

just shut off the oil anytime they feel like it, is unfair to all the other countries that need

oil. Because Russia is plentiful in oil, and they have so many pipes, their necessity for

oil is a lot lower than that of the European Union, Central Europe and Eastern Europe.

The control they maintain is similar to that of the Berlin wall, Central Europe and Eastern

Europe feel that if they control the oil, they control their lives. It’s a common case of the

rich and powerful first world country versus the dependant, third world countries or

countries less bountiful in supplies that need foreign assistance. In this case Russia holds

the power and the other countries are left to their whims.

China has created two social classes, the rich people who are substantial in

resources and successfully developing, and the poor rural folk, who are falling behind and

straining to survive because a lack of necessities. The unofficial names are China A and

B. China A being the rich cities and China B, the underdeveloped countryside. Each have

their own characteristics, “unlike rural areas, urban settlements are defined by their

advanced civic amenities, opportunities for education, facilities for transport, business

and social interaction and overall better standard of living” (Aksh 1). While people in

China A have more access to study abroad and healthcare, students in China B have

relatives work for their tuition usually in factories or they drop out of school because of

poverty and they have no healthcare( Beijing Review 1). The factories are owned by the

business men of China A, while the employees are under paid, over worked, young rural

civilians usually.

Farming doesn’t provide a stable income for farmers so they move to the city to

find work which in the end is unfair, unreasonable, dangerous and unsuccessful. The

reason they work is to provide an income for their families, provide education for siblings

and to pay for health insurance. The average income of a rural civilian is 2,622 yuan

while an urban civilian makes on average 8,500 yuan (Beijing Review 1). According to

Marx, “the proletariat, the working class or “the people,” own
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