by Sayaka Umei

There is inequality, such as economy, education, income, ability, wealth etc. Some people claim that we should avoid inequality because inequality contributes economic growth, according to Lane Kenworthy. However, I argue that they are not connected each other, and we need inequality to keep creating valuable things. Kenworthy is talking about the country base, but I would like to apply it to the nation base.

In Japan, some elementary schools have stopped the competition on a sports day because the competition is not equal. For example, children start running toward a goal, and just before the goal they have to wait for their friends who have not been near goal yet, then reach the goal together. So everyone can get 1^st prize. They do this because children should be equal, no discrimination.

For another point of this, in the United States there is no public insurance, which is different from Japan. Japan thinks every nation should have equal opportunity for medical care because everyone has the same human right to live. However, there is a problem that this insurance is paid by taxes from nations, so in the theory poor people use the money of rich people. American people point out this problem. They think the richer should get the richer quality of medical care to use their own money for themselves. This is too reasonable.

In Japan people used to think that inequality is not good, so it should be removed. Thus even Japanese society reflects this trend. Japanese companies raise their employees’ salary as a reward for long service because everyone can get their salaries as the term of their engagement. However, this idea has been changing in this recession into the base of people’s ability, which means employees can get their salaries based on their results. More good companies would like to hire more good people who have the ability to grow that company up because it has to survive in this competitive society of this recession. So the company has to pay more to the people who have good abilities to motivate them. It works; this kind of companies such as consulting companies or foreign investment banks can earn more money and they can also get more good people.

In conclusion, in this changeable, international, and competitive society, inequality is unavoidable or necessary to survive. Considered this situation, Japanese people have to understand this trend, and train their children to survive in this society. I would like to warn people who think the inequality is discrimination. Since every person is not the same as everyone knows, they cannot say the inequality is discrimination.