The one-sentence truth: Inequality asks how resources and outcomes differ; mobility asks whether those differences harden into life trajectories.
Core vocabulary
Income inequality, wealth inequality, social mobility, intergenerational mobility, deprivation, redistribution, equity, opportunity, structural disadvantage, concentration.
Income versus wealth
Income is a flow of earnings over time; wealth is accumulated assets. Wealth can transmit advantage across generations even where annual incomes later converge.
Absolute versus relative poverty
Absolute poverty concerns inability to meet basic needs. Relative poverty concerns living standards compared with the society around you. These concepts support different policy arguments.
Mobility versus equality
A society can tolerate substantial inequality while retaining mobility if origins do not strongly determine destinations. Conversely, moderate inequality may still feel unfair where mobility is low.
Equality of opportunity
This phrase becomes analytical only when the opportunity is specified: schooling, healthcare, networks, capital, housing or employment. Formal access may exist while practical barriers remain.
Redistribution
Redistribution changes the distribution of resources through taxes, transfers or public services. Evaluate both its equity effects and the incentives or opportunity costs it creates.
Example sentence
“Educational expansion can improve mobility, but its effect is limited where access to elite opportunities remains strongly correlated with household resources and inherited networks.”
Singapore application
Use local examples to examine housing, education, wages, taxation and social transfers through mechanisms rather than slogans. Ask whether policy changes absolute hardship, relative gaps, mobility, or all three.
Continue the JC2 GP vocabulary system
Return to General Paper Vocabulary Year 2 (JC2) and Vocabulary for Junior College (JC1–JC2).
Final thought
The difficult question is not whether inequality exists, but which inequalities are consequential, persistent and unjustifiable.