UNIT CODE CSSOC201A - APPLIED SOCIOLOGY 2019 Assessment: Briefing Paper Learning outcome 1 Critical analyse sociological patterns of Inequalities in Australian society. 2 Apply social action...

Social Action Plan to reduce Wealth Inequality
    Name of Social Action
    Reducing wealth inequality in the Working class
    Location of the Action Plan
    Sydney
    Aim of the Action Plan
    Critical analysis of sociological patterns of wealth inequalities for the working class in Australian society.
Apply social action strategies to facilitate social change.
Reduce the gap in wealth inequalities in the working class
Increase awareness regarding the causes and effects of wealth inequality
    People it is designed to benefit
    This Social Action plan is designed to benefit the lower and middle tier of the working class who face the greatest burden of wealth inequality and suffer as a result of concentration of wealth in a few hands.
Relevance of Wealth Inequality as an important social issue in Australia
Wealth can be defined as possession of assets in any form. It results from past incomes created through earning or inherited through families. Wealth not only boosts income it is also a source of sustenance for those who cannot continue earn due to age or disability. While income of an individual highly depends on his job and educational attainment, wealth does not rely on it. Wealth inequality creates a great difference in inequality and leads to greater concentration of wealth and unequal distribution of material resources (De Nardi, 2004).
While Australia does have more wealthy households by world standards seconding only to Switzerland, it also has higher inequality than most other wealthy nations. Wealth is more unequally distributed than income in Australia and this inequality is sadly increasing every day (ACOS and UNSW Sydney, 2018).
Outcome of wealth inequality in Australia
Wealth inequality in Australia is a pressing issue since it plagues the entire country. The top 20 percent of the households in Australia receive half the income and the bottom 20 percent gets only 4 percent of the wealth. If analyzed logically, the disparity is huge. Studies show that the average wealth of a household in the top 20% is about 5 times that of the middle 20% and about a hundred times that of the lowest 20%.
While disparity in income is also an issue with the average income of the top 1% being ten times that of the lowest 40%, wealth inequality tops this problem. This is because the low wealth groups have now way of creating wealth when they have to struggle for day to day work. Studies show that the lowest 40% income group rely mainly on social security or (low) wages (ACTU, 2019).
Causes of wealth inequality in Australia
There are many causes for wealth inequality among the working class in Australia. One important cause is the changes in the value and distribution of superannuation and investment property holdings. In addition to these changes, there has been a strong but unequal growth in wages and investment incomes leading to increase in wealth inequality.
Government policies in this relation have also been responsible since the succession of income tax cuts in the mid-2000s mostly benefited those on higher incomes and not those of lower incomes. Eventually what has happened is that wealth has shifted to the older household while those in younger households face increasing levels of inequality in wealth distribution.
Another cause of wealth inequality is that wealth that is held in trusts, investment properties and shares in extremely unequally distributed. Inequality in relation to gender pay also plays an important role in wealth inequality since women are disproportionately represented at lower incomes not reaching even 45 per cent. All of this as well as the freeze of wage increase has led to lack of growth in the working class leaving the poor to get poorer and rich to get richer (Dabla-No
is, 2015).
Proposed Strategies to reduce wealth inequality
In order to reduce wealth inequality, the following actions are recommended-
1- Increasing minimum wages
Increasing minimum wages of employees will help increase the earning of those at the lower end of the...