IELTS Essay by Jeenn Lee Hsieh
Narrowing the Rich-Poor Gap
IELTS Writing Task 2 Topic:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The gap between the rich and the poor is becoming wider. What do you think are the causes, effects, and solutions? What should the government do to narrow the gap? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge and experience,
Example Essay (Jeenn Lee Hsieh):
To narrow the gap between haves and have-nots is priority of any responsible government of any political color. In this regard, there are extreme lessons to be learned about the causes, effects and solutions. While helping the poor by destroying the rich sounds like revolution, doing nothing seems defining poverty as destiny.
Economic inequality is the root of social unrest, so much so the very rich are hated and the very poor as despised, probably for wrong reasons. In fact, the government and people ought to understand that, since there is no shame to work for a fortune, the wealthy people are not to blame for making a lot of money if they are righteous and generous. Likewise, it must be realized that the very poor are not exactly righteous if some of them are lazy and wasteful which eventually leads to poverty. On the one hand, it is morally wrong the rich becoming richer without a heart caring for the poor; on the other hand, there is nothing good about being in miserable conditions because of their own faults. Nevertheless, through looking at the origins of the widening gap in income, it is also clear that such core issues as old age, accident, sickness and unemployment should be dealt with by every sector concerned. Accordingly, the policy of social welfare may contribute much of relief for some people suffering from extreme poverty.
Of course, there are many things to be done to rescue the extremely poor. To begin with, an increased budget for education may create opportunities for those whose parents cannot afford university fees. Also, building more public hospitals may make medical care more accessible to the sick. Likewise, giving shelters to the homeless may cut the number of the less fortunate sleeping in the streets. However, in an even more polarized society where the distribution of wealth symbolizes social-economic injustice, the gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider to such an extent that it is sometimes jokingly believed that the government should actually play the role of Robin Hood (by robbing the rich to help the poor). Ironically, this belief makes modern sense in that the government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from anybody else.
To conclude, it is imperative for the very wealthy people as well as the government to do more to narrow the rich-poor gap in more ways than simply the force of law. The important point is that you cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. Therefore, more effective actions must be taken, otherwise all promises are nothing but shadow of words when the hungry are staving. (Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh)
