“Society chooses between equality and freedom – an equal society has a wealth gap, a free society does not.” – Toby, London
The topic of our October inequality debate was “Should there be a limit on how rich people are allowed to be?” In this world, there are so many people who have money while many people are struggling to live their lives. The question led to a lively debate about the inequality of wealth and means of having money.
Some people agreed with the idea of introducing a wealth cap:
“There should be a limit on wealth and the wealth could be shared with the poor (the excess part). Since there are many who are vulnerable and poor, sharing with them is important so they can cope with the challenges in their life” – Alfred, Uganda
“Yes. The rich aren’t just getting richer while the poor are getting poorer – they’re getting richer BECAUSE the poor are getting poorer.” – Oscar
Many people in the debate thought there should be a limit to be rich because there seemed to be negative images toward people who have a lot of money:
“Some rich people take advantage of the poor and engage in bad acts like stealing and then the poor are imprisoned!” – Fox, Jinja
“What if they choose to keep the money and not to help other well?” – Henry, Uganda
On the other hand, some people clearly stated their opinions that there should not be a limit on being rich:
“No, everyone should be free.” – Mike
“Rich people word hard to reach this level so putting a limit on them will be infringing on their peace to enjoy what they have toiled for.” – Tabisa, Jinja
We could see some opinions showing that rich people can support the people in unfortunate situations:
“But they provide employment to poor” – Issac
“They should not have a limit because they improve our transport system” – Kitongo
Some people opposed the idea of making limits on how rich people can be and suggested alternatives to the limitation:
“I don’t like the idea of limiting how much money people can have – I’d prefer to have better controls in place to either make sure the richest people get taxed more fairly to help out others who don’t have as much or to ensure wealth doesn’t become a birthright.” – Daniel, UK
The government or society may take part to set the system for sharing wealth.
At last, interestingly, some people stated that wealth depends on how people manage their money:
“It depends on how you manage your money. Nor the rich save and the poor mismanage their money. (…) The poor an unable to teach their children so they are unable to get good jobs. (…) you could end up stealing to survive.” – Marvin, Uganda
This may be one of the reasons why education is essential for supporting people and making a fairer world.
There were many interesting opinions in this month’s inequality debate. If you would like to read more about this question, please have a look at the full discussion here.
The monthly inequality question leads many people to think about visible or invisible inequality in our society. At the same time, the monthly questions are raised by children in Uganda, which helps children on the streets to have their opinions heard. They would like to know what many other people think from all over the world, so please join our monthly inequality debate.
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