Professor Parker
English 112- I77
12 January 2015
“The Rich Are Different from You and Me: A Summary of the Article by Chrystia Freeland
In the article “The Rich Are Different from You and Me,” author Chrystia Freeland explains the rising phenomenon of income inequality that is occurring between the richest top 10% and bottom 90% of the population. Chrystia Freeland states “In every society, some people are richer than others, but across time and geography, the gap between the rich and the rest has widely varied. The reality today is that the rich-especially the very, very rich- are vaulting ahead of everyone else” (51). Between the years of 2002 and 2007, income statistics show that the gap between the richest 10% and the bottom 90% of the population had significantly increased. Statistics also show that by 2007, approximately 35% of the wealth was maintained by the top 10%, leaving about 27% of wealth to the bottom 90% of the population. This is about an 8% gap in between. The last time income inequality was this high was in the 1920’s, but back then only 20% of wealth was gained from work. Today the top 10% gains at least 60% of their wealth from work, rather than inheritance. As economies throughout the world mature, income inequality will continue to rise. The gap between the rich and all others is primarily found in United States. Other countries such as Canada, China, and the United Kingdom are beginning to see income inequality as well. Freeland also states that “These global super- rich work and play together” (52). They share common interests such as business traveling, and vacationing around the world. Due to the common interests shared by others most like themselves, they have become separated from all others within the population, and have formed their own world governed by plutocracy. Author Chrystia Freeland is concerned that because the rich are so caught up in their world of wealth that they will not recognize that other members of the population are falling behind, and the severity of the rising income inequality throughout the world.
Works Cited
Freeland, Chrystia. “The Rich Are Different from You and Me.” The McGraw- Hill Reader: Issues across the Disciplines. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. New York, 2014. 51-52. Print.
Cited: Freeland, Chrystia. “The Rich Are Different from You and Me.” The McGraw- Hill Reader: Issues across the Disciplines. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. New York, 2014. 51-52. Print.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
This is shown in the fact that 68.7 percent of the world’s population only holds three percent of the wealth in the world and only 8.4 percent of the world’s population has 83.3 percent of the wealth of the world (Doc 6). The 68.7 percent of the world with the least amount of money often works in factories for very low wages, these factories being owned by the most wealthy. This relates to how those who get ahead have to step on others, with the wealthy exploiting the poor for their wealth.…
- 477 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
• Weicher, John C. The Distribution of Wealth: Increasing Inequality?. Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1996.…
- 919 Words
- 4 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Some people feel the rich do not pay their fair share in taxes. “The 95th/50th ratio in 2011 was $186,000 divided by $50,054, which equals 3.72. In other words, the income of houses in the 95th percentile was 3.72 times the income of households in the 50th percentile. Those in the top 25th percentile obtained a vast majority of the income in America (79.5% in 2007 and 75.9% in 2010.” (Evans, “Wealth”). This does prove that wealth is not evenly distributed among all Americans, which is an understandable thing to be upset…
- 1059 Words
- 5 Pages
Powerful Essays -
During the past thirty-three years the gap between the rich, middle-class, and impoverished has become much more prominent. At the early signs of this great economic divergence, people mistook it for a short slip-up in our nations economy, but now the divergence has become a reality of life itself. There were signs that the indifference was beginning to disappear in 2011 when The Occupy Wall Street movement occurred, but its hard to know if these will have any lasting effect in our nations future. We tend to think of America growing more equal in society not less, and it has in ways such as gender equality, equality amongst races, marriage…
- 2351 Words
- 10 Pages
Powerful Essays -
On the other hand, to get a true grasp of the unearned leverage given through inherited wealth, you must include inheritances between living individuals as well. These advantages include but are not limited to, upper hands ranging from having their college education paid for, to be given a down payment on their first home. This causes the wealthy to believe they are self-made and that they have climbed the socio-economic ladder on their own without the help of anyone. The ideology of meritocracy’s influence on economic inequality shows that this is not the case. The meritocracy myth also drives those with more wealth to presume those who are not in their economic class are under the stereotype of being lazy and unworthy individuals.…
- 123 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
To research and write this paper I first defined what I meant by the wealth gap. As opposed to income, wealth is the assets minus the debts an individual has. Therefore when I refer to the rich or the poor I define them as people with either a vast amount of assets or very little assets. I also lumped lower income individuals and families with the poor since most lower income families do not have very many assets. Since there are many different opinions and claims about the wealth gap I decided to focus this paper on the social game of the two main claims Americans listen to and discuss.…
- 2727 Words
- 11 Pages
Good Essays -
When someone thinks about the upper class, the majority of people may think about living in a big house or driving a nice car. But in truth, as G. William Domhoff explains in his book, “Who Rules America?”, there is an upper class that is much more than that. Domhoff describes the upper class as closely intertwined with the corporate community. He begins by explaining why it is important to know this, and provides statistics that seem to show how the upper class attempts to influence corporations. Domhoff states that from grade school to grad school, upper class children are trained to excel in the corporate level, giving them an advantage in obtaining the highest positions in the corporate world. Domhoff also explains how the upper class meets together in social clubs, which only the most powerful and influential individuals may join. Using this evidence, as well as several others, Domhoff is able to support his theory that the upper class is intertwined with the corporate world.…
- 1240 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
“The problem in the U.S. is not that a minority has grown super rich, but that for decades now, it has done so to the detriment of the lower social class” (Arora 90)…
- 894 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Wealth distribution and income inequality are two different concepts, in that wealth distribution looks at how the ownership of assets in a given society is shared among its members while income inequality focuses exclusively on the income side of the equation. However, both measures help chart the economic gap within a country's wealthiest and poorest citizens. Over the last ten years, economic inequality has been growing, particularly in developed countries where, historically, it had been more contained…
- 364 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
In American culture today, money plays a role in everything. While higher classes get special treatment in many different ways, lower classes don 't get any treatment at all to benefit they 're lives. Now the higher class may not think they get special treatment but in-fact, they either benefit from donations to colleges to get there son in or also not having to work a job in they 're life. A great example of the higher class getting special treatment is when Micheal Vick was charged with dog fighting. He got out of prison early while other offenders served longer sentences. Its a great example of famous high income people get special treatment.…
- 1316 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
At the beginning of this new millennium I was asked to discuss, here in Oslo, the greatest challenge that the world faces. Among all the possible choices, I decided that the most serious and universal problem is the growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on earth. Citizens of the ten wealthiest countries are now seventy-five times richer than those who live in the ten poorest ones, and the separation is increasing every year, not only between nations but also within them.…
- 1551 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Conniff, R. (2003) The Natural History of the Rich: A Field Guide. W. W. Norton. p. 126.…
- 2918 Words
- 12 Pages
Best Essays -
Money, it's something we struggle to live without. The less we ahve the more we want, the more we have the more we want, the more we have the more we spend. It's a vicious cycle. But imagine not having the money to buy food; imagine watching your children go hungry every night. Twenty-four thousand people die from hunger or hunger related diseases. For many, this hits close to home; working for little pay, struggling week to week, wondering if they will have enough to buy groceries or if they will go hungry once again. Many people either don't seem to realize or just not care that millions of people are still slaves in this world. Sixty to eighty million people, today, work for no pay; in exchange they recieve food and shelter. Slave owners once had the responsibility to provide food and shelter to maintain workforce. Today, they simply drive to the outskirts of town, pick up willing workers, and drop them back off at town, and get paid $6.50 a day. Try feeding a family on that sort of income. The working poor do all they can to survive but it is never enough; unable to pay bills, buy food, provide medicine, these people die one by one. Imagine having to sit in the emergency room, waiting for your loved ones to raise money for you to get the proper care you need. One out of three people die waiting. What we take for granted, many people are unfortunate to have.…
- 1503 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays -
given an analysis and an answer. The components that make up happiness are vast and…
- 1397 Words
- 5 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Merkin, Daphne. "The Rich Aren 't Like You and Me..." Elle. 13 Sept. 2010. Web. 11 Mar.…
- 1989 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays