Since our first lesson I've been researching inequality in New Zealand and what comes to mind for friends and family when they think of inequality in New Zealand. I conducted my own research too, In my research I was drawn to facts and figures because they're what really makes a story of inequality meaningful to me in the shortest way possible – say for a poster. For my original poster I found the quote that there's more men named John than all female CEOs. One of the other inequalities I've been investigating is the imbalance of Maori population in New Zealand prisons. For example, Maori make up more than 50% of prison populations but only account for less than 18% of NZ's entire population. Another interesting stat around wealth distribution: The richest two men in New Zealand have more combined wealth than the bottom 30% of NZ – roughly 1.2 million people. Obviously though I'd like to drill down further than just financial inequality. Another lesser known inequality I found was how the IRD spends much more money prosecuting benefit fraud vs tax evasion – even when the latter is far more prominent and loses much more money. Source: Benefit fraud v tax avoidance - why is one dealt with more harshly by courts?

In class today we looked at inequality as a whole group and brainstormed what we know of inequality in NZ – my group was given race and housing.

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I also asked my Twitter followers what came to mind when they think of inequality in NZ and I got some great responses – the link is available here: https://twitter.com/emoryzanef/status/1151724445842587648

I especially loved this comic strip I was linked which highlighted low level inequality and how it can effect someones entire life of just the small things: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/373065/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate – made me grateful for the family I was born into and it's such a shame that the world is such a lottery – that's why I think it's so good we're studying inequality. However I'm very interested in creating a poster not just highlighting inequality but offering a possible solution – even if that was highlighting an organization fighting inequality in New Zealand, for example girlboss.