Singapore” serves to explore the inherent contradictions within the concept of meritocracy and investigate the systemic failures arising from the dissonance caused by how meritocracy is practised in Singapore where the inevitable social and income inequalities results in an elitist system which perpetuates itself. The central research question is how meritocracy shapes the Singapore elite and in turn how the elite shapes meritocracy in the country. In this paper, the elite is defined as the class of
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GEK2003 Politics and Governance in Singapore Name: Toh Zhi Qi Matrix no: A0111368 L Tutorial Group: E2 ESSAY QUESTION Q2: Of the many issues facing Singapore’s politics, which, in your view, is the most fatal for the PAP and if unresolved, could severely affect the PAP in the coming general elections? During the 2011 General elections, the PAP lost a GRC for the first time and the election was described as a watershed election by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. In the past 7 years,
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Remarks on Economic Mobility On December 4th, 2013 Barack Obama spoke on the subject of income inequality and upward mobility. This speech was delivered to, and hosted by, the Center for American Progress (CAP). The president uses striking language to appeal to the emotion and logic of the audience. Obama executes his appeals in a variety of ways with the express purpose of painting the issue of growing inequality and decreased upward mobility as the “defining challenge of our time.” President Obama describes
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Income inequality has been a major problem in the United States for several decades and it seems that there is still no cure for the problem. In fact, income disparities has become so pronounced that America’s top 10% now average almost 9 times the bottom 90% of the population. Furthermore, almost all of the current presidential campaigns from candidates both from the democratic and republican parties addressed this very problem. But the question is why is it bad? Everyone knows that income inequality
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This week’s reading, article “Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore” Robert H. Frank provides several explanations for the rising income inequality in the United States by looking at the 100 most populous counties in the country. He begins by analyzing the three decades that followed WWII and points out that they were decades in which incomes across the board rose both equally and rapidly. He then follows this discussion by looking at the last three decades (1980-present) and points out that in this
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2012). Being put on the shoes of others and experiencing something you never experienced before is a frightening and fearsome experiment; but this kind of experience would make you a better person. COMM 315 Week 3 DQs What areas of social inequality have you or your family experienced? Describe a
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Dream of achieving economic equality among all people and providing equal opportunities to both the rich and poor alike is now no longer a dream but rather a myth. The reason being, the country has been plagued by the problem of an ever-growing inequality. According to Nobel-prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz, it is both a tragedy and irony that determination, work, and vision are no longer the keys to one's success in America (Streight, 2015). Instead, Stiglitz says, “being born to rich, well-educated
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Income inequality damages growth, OECD warns Chris Giles in London Rising income inequality over the past 30 years has damaged growth rates in rich countries by limiting educational opportunities for poor children, according to research by the OECD, the group of mainly rich nations. The finding that higher inequality harms economic performance mirrors the results of a similar study by the International Monetary Fund earlier this year. But the OECD’s analysis goes further because it concentrates
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Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries* Robert J. Barro, Harvard University June 1999 Abstract Evidence from a broad panel of countries shows little overall relation between income inequality and rates of growth and investment. However, for growth, higher inequality tends to retard growth in poor countries and encourage growth in richer places. The Kuznets curve—whereby inequality first increases and later decreases during the process of economic development—emerges as a clear empirical
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The wealth chasm: a dangerous cocktail The street demonstrations of 2011 and 2012 are still fresh in our minds. Thousands of voices chanting, “We are the 99%!” and blockading the stock exchange have not left the psyche of American’s, and were successful in getting their message across. Before 2011, it was heard in whispers: “They have too much.” Now, it’s a shout. The rich are indeed doing very well for themselves. In fact, the wealth gap is almost unprecedented, except for right before the great
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