{"id":786,"date":"2017-03-29T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T09:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/?p=786"},"modified":"2017-03-27T15:15:46","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T15:15:46","slug":"mwr-do-the-rich-have-better-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/making-work-real\/2017\/03\/mwr-do-the-rich-have-better-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"MWR: Do the Rich Have Better Opportunities?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"University<\/a>
University of Southampton Business School student, Matthew Collins, discusses the effect of wealth on opportunity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rich and the poor, one of the world\u2019s oldest conflicts. There is such a contrast between them, socially, environmentally and economically. But why is this the case? The key factor I believe is down to opportunity. Opportunity to develop and be able to interface with business. The gap between the rich and poor is growing and will only worsen (Ireland, 2015). Current data released by Oxfam show that the richest 62 people on the planet have equivalent wealth to the poorest 50% (Oxfam, 2016). So with there being such a gap, the main questions that come to mind are: why is it happening and what are the impacts on society and the business world?<\/p>\n

The rich. Are they rich because they have worked harder? Longer hours? Or are they better at what they do? Some disagree and put it down to luck. They believe it is a \u201clong way from equality of opportunity and that the rich are rewarded for the same effort far more than are the poor\u201d (Kenny, 2013). So the poor are not necessarily the lazy ones of society, just rewarded less for their efforts, because they are granted fewer opportunities. For example, \u201cif your\u00a0father didn\u2019t graduate high school<\/a>, you are eight times more likely not to graduate high school yourself\u201d (Kenny, 2013). So a level of inequality exists not necessarily due to performance, but the environment you were brought up in. Not everyone receives the same chance to succeed in the business world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gap between the lifespans of rich and poor people in England and Wales is rising for the first time since the 1870s\u201d (Burns, 2016). Does this show that money buys your health? Not necessarily the case, \u201cRich people take better care of their health than poor people\u201d (Brewer, 2015). Brewer believes that wealthier people spend more time and effort looking after their health, due to the idea that they value their wellbeing to a greater extent than the poor, because they have a greater incentive to do so. Personally, I am of the belief that poorer people have a lower standard of health due to dietary issues caused by financial restrictions. \u201cBoth food insecurity and obesity can be independent consequences of low income and the resulting lack of access to enough nutritious foods\u201d (FRAC, 2014). Poorer people can\u2019t afford a nutritious diet, because it \u201ccosts an average of three times more than less healthy alternatives\u201d (Green, 2014). So with a worse diet, huge health consequences arise.<\/p>\n

The argument of why the rich are rich, and the poor are poor mostly comes down to the ability and opportunity to conduct enterprise. The impact of inequality can be quite literally deadly. Which to me is an extraordinary concept. In a world so complex and advanced, to think that whole sectors of society are exposed to greater health risks due to their weaker financial position. \u201c4.5% of U.S. deaths were found to be attributable to poverty\u201d (Columbia, 2011), which for the country with the largest GDP in the world (Statistics times, 2016), is very disturbing, and extremely unfair.<\/p>\n

Matthew Collins studies Business Management (With Placement) at Southampton Business School. The views in this article represent those of the author.\u00a0This article is part of the ‘Making Our Work Real’ series. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rich and the poor, one of the world\u2019s oldest conflicts. There is such a contrast between them, socially, environmentally and economically. But why is this the case? The key factor I believe is down to opportunity. Opportunity to develop and be able to interface with business. The gap between the rich and poor is growing and will only worsen …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99260,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1030568],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-making-work-real","column","threecol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/bscbusinessmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}