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Honson Tran
Professor Tieka Harris
Expository Writing 101: KF
25 September 2015
The Extent of Inequality
In our society today, the rich are usually the ones who are in power and can influence a
huge majority of the population. The balance of equality is tampered with these people who use
this power to gain nothing but pure self-benefit. As a result, the middle class and any class under
them are affected greatly by the actions of the few. However, the majority of the population in
the lower class could possibly have contributed to the upper class actions of monopolization,
causing inequality. This inequality is best shown in Joseph E. Stiglitzs text, Rent Seeking and
the Making of an Unequal Society. Stiglitz discusses how the few and the government are
affecting the classes under them through what is called a negative-sum game. A negative-sum
game is basically when the person who isnt benefitting is actually losing more than what the
individual originally had. Another text that shows this is Ethan Watterss The Mega-Marketing
of Depression in Japan. In this essay, Watters discusses a pharmaceutical company named
GlaxoSmithKline that took advantage of Japans narrative on depression in order to mega-market
Paxil, an antidepressant. In a way, the extent that people can be held accountable for the actions
of the few is the magnitude of how much they give into to these actions.
A factor of determining the amount of accountability the people take for the actions of
the few is the amount of knowledge they have before making the decision. This is shown in
Stiglitzs text as well as Watterss essay. In Stiglitzs essay, the author discusses the scheme of
the few to take advantage of the poor called rent seeking. Rent seeking is when a company or

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individual uses their resources in order to economically create an advantage in order to be able to
gain benefits. However, the downfall of this method is that rent seekers usually do not give back
to society. They are the complete opposite. Rent seekers take from society for their own benefit.
Likewise, Stiglitz states that the form of rent seeking that is most egregiousand that has been
the most perfected in recent yearshas been the ability of those in the financial sector to take
advantage of the poor and uninformed, as they made enormous amounts of money by preying
upon these groups with predatory lending and abusive credit card practices (Stiglitz 400). Due
to this credit abuse from the consumer, the few consider this as more of an opportunity than a
problem. It seems as if even though the few prey upon people who abuse credit and have a
history of debt, it is not completely the fault of the few. The people who agree to use these credit
services are also held accountable and should be responsible for their actions. On the contrary,
this goes back to the consumer being knowledgeable of spending wisely and being responsible
for themselves. Their lack of knowledge is the reason why the few see this as an opportunity to
be able to take advantage of the population and create benefit for themselves. Likewise, this also
occurred in the The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan. In this essay, Watters describes
the intentions of the GlaxoSmithKline and their effect on the entire population of Japan
regarding antidepressants and depression. Japan had a huge narrative of depression and
GlaxoSmithKline decided to take advantage of this market for their own benefit more than
healing others problems of depression. Watters states that whatever its origin, the line kokoro
no kaze appealed to the drug marketers as it effectively shouldered three messages at the same
time. First, it implied that utsubyo was not the severe condition it was once thought to be and
therefore should carry no social stigma. Who would think less of someone for having a cold?
Second it suggested that the choice of taking a medication for depression should be as simple and

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worry-free as buying a cough syrup or an antihistamine (Watters 524). In this case, the people
of Japan were not knowledgeable of the GlaxoSmithKlines studies and reeducated them to think
that the symptoms and illnesses that were not that severe. By generalizing depression,
GlaxoSmithKline was able to influence the people by manipulating their knowledge on
depression. This was simply done by realizing that the medications were only given out to those
who were severely ill. By generalizing depression, GlaxoSmithKline was able to reach to the
entire population to market their medications for their own benefit.
Another aspect that should be considered when discussing the extent that the people have
on the few is their will to act. The peoples contribution to the rich and powerful does nothing
but help the rich to reap the benefits of others. The concept of the negative-sum game, where
the gains to winners are less than the losses to the losers (Stiglitz 397). This negative-sum
game is caused by controlling supply and demand. Stiglitz states that a monopolist who
overcharges for his product takes money from those whom he is overcharging and at the same
time destroys value. To get his monopoly price, he has to restrict production (Stiglitz 396). If
the people stopped purchasing these monopolized products and found other alternatives, the rich
will not be able to take advantage of the poor. If more consumers were able to collaborate and go
against the monopoly, the rich will have no choice but to adapt. Gaining control is also important
in order to regain equality. This solution also applies to the people of Japan against
GlaxoSmithKline. Watters mentions that Applbaum stated that GlaxoSmitKline seemed to
believe their products were effective and they were baffled that anyone should question their
value. The pharmaceutical industry, more than other industries, can link its marketing activities
to ethical objectives. The result is a marriage of the profit-seeking scheme in which disease is
regarded as an opportunity to the ethical view that mankinds health hangs in the balance

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(Watters 528). If Applbaum pointed out this analysis, something should have been done to stop
GlaxoSmithKlines intentions. By being able to oversee what GlaxoSmithKline was trying to do,
going against the monopoly that the pharmaceutical company was trying to create would have
helped in fighting for equality again. The pharmaceutical company also ran spots in the guise of
public service announcements encouraging people to seek professional help for depression
(Watters 525). In these ads, the antidepressant distributors attempted to distance depression
further from endogenous depression as it was understood by Japanese psychiatrists for most of
the century (Watters 525). Instead of being encouraged by these ads, the people of Japan should
have fought against this influence and attempted to regain control of the situation. In conclusion,
the extent that people have onto the actions of the few is their will to go against what seems to be
unfair.
In conclusion, the extent that people have toward the upper class is the amount they
conform with their decision making as well as well as the amount of how knowledgeable the
lower classes are in what the upper class is trying to do. For those who do not fight against
inequality, there will be no change. This was shown through the actions of the upper class. The
upper class sees benefit and therefore makes sense for them to be able to reap more benefits
regardless of the amount of harm that is done to the classes under them. In Stiglitzs essay, the
upper class took advantage of the lower class by preying on people who abuse their credit. In
Watterss essay, GlaxoSmithKline targeting the entire population of Japan in their efforts to
mega-market Paxil. As a result of the lack of knowledge from the people in the middle class and
lower, the upper class is able to take advantage, therefore creating the inequality. The amount of
accountability of the people in the actions of the rich are seem to be almost equal in fault as the
upper class.