In the United States, the top ten percent of all households own seventy-six percent of all the wealth in the country (1). Income inequality is frequently highlighted, but why is wealth inequality rarely brought to our attention? The political system has failed to deal with the problem, and the gap will only continue to grow in the future. How can we call this the land of opportunity when the bottom forty percent will most likely stay the bottom forty percent for their entire lives (1)? That is why I offer a modest proposal to overthrow the current system and establish a Utopian society built from the rubble. This Utopia, which I shall refer to as the United Socialist States of America (USSA), is going to be built around the premise of economic equity through the equal distribution of resources and knowledge. This would create a society without greed because money is the ultimate…
Income Inequality Gap Over the years America’s inequality income gap has been growing, between the rich and the poor. There are many reasons why this is happening. Andrew Carnegie, John Kenneth Galbraith and Joseph Stiglitz may agree with me, but believe there are different reasons why and how it should be dealt with. I would have to say that I agree that Galbraith’s idea is what is better for America now.…
“Wealth inequality can be described as the unequal distribution of assets within a population. The United States exhibits wider disparities of wealth between rich and poor than any other major developed nation,” (www.inequality.org) There are two factors that I believe contribute to the wealth gap are income and race inequalities. As the gaps widen within those two factors, the wealth gap in the United States continues to grow exponentially.…
America is supposed to be all about equality, but if you take a serious look around, you will see that there is human rights issue going on all over America; this is just one of them. Things need to be reevaluated and adjusted as things change and growth happens, America do not seem to roll with the changes very well and are stuck in a moralistic, religious, patriarchal system. In recent years, the major concerns of economic development is the study of poverty, the income distribution and growth in the less developed countries or from all over the world have been doing researches and studies on how to induce a growth in those under developed countries.…
...Between 1979 and 2000, the gap in household income between the top fifth and middle fifth of the population by 31 percent. During the economic boom of the 19990s, four out of five Americans saw their share of net worth decline, while the top fifth saw their share increase from 59 percent to 63 percent....…
Wealth Gap: Why America is threatening Democracy The democratic ideal that “All men are created equal" is the basis of The Declaration of Independence and is deeply rooted in American history. However, this ideal is not as realistic when looking closer into American society. For instance, the idea of equality is never actually mentioned in The Constitution. The United States is known for being built on freedom and foreigners look to it as the possibility for the American dream, but there have been many key events in history that show the fragility of civil rights and the reality of inequality in the United States. Democracy is defined as a government created by the people and for the people. Human rights are necessary for a democratic system.…
In America today you often hear about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. In the Youtube video “Watch Inequality in America,” from the politizane channel, the video states that your everyday CEO makes 380 times more than their average worker. If you do the math, then the average employee would have to work over a month to make what the CEO makes in only one hour (2012). So, besides pay inequality what else is affecting the nation’s poverty? While it is true that a large reason for the staggering amount of poverty in America comes from pay inequality, it also comes from the lack of education in our youth. According to Lyndsey Layton, 2013 was the first time in about 50 years that a majority of U.S. public school students came…
Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore In “Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore”, Frank shows the influences in Americans’ lives in different classes by the disparity between the rich and the poor. He arouses people’s consciousness for the “rising inequality” which is being polarized and has been causing immense damages to Americans, no matter which class they are. It is true that the “Income Inequality” in America is very obvious and affecting more and more people. Indeed, “we should just agree that it’s a bad thing”, however, are we able to do something concrete to deal with it effectively? Is the” rising inequality really required in the name of fairness”? I stand neutral towards Frank’s opinion.…
Income/wealth inequality in the U.S has grown rapidly over the last few decades. “Today the richest 1% own 34% of the wealth and top 10% own 74%” (Hodges). The main causes of this discrepancy are attributed to the technology boom, the need for companies to outsource production and inherence of wealth as well as company differences. Though the growing gap is alarming to Americans, it is important to remember that income and wealth inequality is an accepted result of a capitalistic economy. The whole idea of capitalism is the ability for any individual to freely develop, trade, and in turn increase their social status without government interference. By adhering to these base principles it allows us as Americans the freedoms not seen in…
It is also useful to consider how each economic class manages their money. The upper class and a large part of the middle class are knowledgeable about their wealth. Even for people in the upper and middle class who are not very knowledgeable with their wealth, they are often able to hire personal accountants and investment planners. Often is the case with individuals who are economically knowledgeable or are paying for personal wealth services, that any expendable income is invested into capital assets that earn an additional income. Stephen Moore found that the upper class spends an average of $28,272 per year on nonessential items (Moore 34). The middle class spends $15,843 per year and the lower class $11,247 per year (Moore 34). While…
22.3 – 13.7 ≤ 13.7 – 13.7 + h h ≥ 8.6 19. You have at most $15.00 to spend. You want to buy a used CD that costs $4.25. Write and solve an inequality to find the possible additional amounts you can spend.…
We often see and hear success stories of successful entrepreneurs in America, such as the story of Bill Gates and how his success came about from founding Microsoft through hard work and dedication. We also see and hear stories about the poor, however, these stories are presented in a much less sensationalized tone when compared to stories of successful entrepreneurs. The general public tend to think that poor people are generally poor because they are lazy and unwilling to work. This is based around the idea of income inequality, where Americans believe that the more effort someone puts to find employment and completing their job, the more money they will make in the long run. But is income inequality truly the reason why there are so many…
Income inequality: Causes and Trends The distribution of wealth is extremely unequal in America and the whole world. This paper documents the growing inequality, and examines three reasons for its increase. The income growth for top earners is faster than income growth for the poor. This accelerated income growth for top earners would increase the income gap between top earners and the poor. In addition, income inequality between the poor and top earners in the US is becoming greater than in other countries. There are three reasons for this increasing inequality. First, top earners usually have more education than the poor. Making college more affordable leads to higher income inequality. Wage and income inequality is rising among the college-educated.…
Economic inequality is the differences found in various measures of the economy within individuals of a group, groups in a population, and among countries. (Huffington Post 1). Economic inequality is sometimes called income inequality, wealth inequality, or the wealth gap. (The Equality Trust 2). There are three main types of economic inequality. Income, is the extent to which income is distributed unevenly in a group of people. Income is not just the money by pay, but also money received from employment, investments, shares of stock, savings, state benefits, pensions and rent. Pay inequality is a person’s pay, which is different from income. Pay refers to payment from employment only. This can be on hourly, monthly or annually based. Wealth…
Cultural diversity The Inequality in the USA The Assignment I am going to look at the inequality in the USA society, currently in 2009. By looking at the income distribution, educational levels and the health system. After looking at all these different factors I will make a comparison that will provide some comments concerning how these factors affect each other. Why or why not? Then look at the effects of this have on a household.…