“The richest Americans hold nearly 90 percent of the total household wealth in the country” (Mantsios 380). That leaves a mere ten percent to be distributed among the rest of the population, this is a wide margin considering less than half the population holds the nation’s wealth. A wealth more evenly split would see a greater impact on those who would benefit most, those suffering who need more financial security. The middle class, a population keen on imitating the rich, would require the average worker making a salary of “$49,455 (the median income in the United States)” over “2,500 lifetimes to earn $10 billion”, which more than 70 of the 1,000 billionaires living in the United States are worth (Mantsios 380). The wealth of the nation is so unevenly distributed that many Americans are suffering, yet no improvements have been made.…
Individually, the U.S. has the one percent of Upper Class, the thirty percent of the Upper Middle Class, the thirty two percent of the Middle Class, the seventeen percent of the Lower Middle Class, and lastly, the overwhelming twenty percent of the poor. Now lets specifically look at that top one percent and the bottom twenty percent. How is it that one percent of America controls fifty percent of the national currency, and twenty percent controls a small fraction of it? A major reason for this is due to the rich influencing a specific idea or creating legislation for wealthy politicians in return for a large payoff. If a person were to look at Paine’s quote, “There, the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged,” he/she would be in great…
Wealth inequality is also a major issue between the rich and the poor. Wealth is “the value of assets owned by an individual of family at a point in time. (Gilbert, 277). Even though the rich do pay taxes, it doesn’t affect them as bad as the poor. They are still able to live comfortably because of the property that they owned. These properties are sometimes inherited and passed down to them. Not only that, but it is most likely that they also have some sort of savings or safety net to maintain their lifestyle in case anything should happen. The poor on the other hand, even though they have to pay taxes as well, this can affect them drastically. Simply because majority of the time they do not own much. They do not own any property,…
Over the last decade, income inequality has become one of the most important issues in the U.S. and a subject of a lot of debate. There is a prevalent idea in the society that the wealth inequality in United States is currently at the highest level in the history after steadily raising for a number of decades. The financial crisis is said to have contributed to this significant gap between the top 1% and everybody else. People view it as an inherently negative thing, and fight hard to promote the equality and income redistribution. This paper examines the causes of inequality; the relationship between wealth inequality and economic growth and the hypothesis on how policy measures can be designed to mitigage the income disparity both in U.S. and in the rest of the world. The researh is based on the theory that inequality is an essential aspect of an efficient free market economy that adversely affects economic growth when in excess.…
A redistribution of wealth would automatically cause laziness. The ideology of redistribution is against America's economic system. It will take away from society's growth opportunities like when the rich cannot start a new business or hire new employees, and basically hurting the economy because of this. When you tax income you get less of it. People will have less money to invest, save, and use. When you take away Neil’s money to pay Sam, Neil will either move away or quit working because he has zero incentive to earn money, and won't get a dime, and since Neil is not working Sam will have no money. Redistribution ruins productive habits and investments, which leads to no economic growth. The people who depend on the redistribution of wealth…
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…
Krugman suggests that we take the United States economy for granted, he thinks that extreme inequality is an “inevitable byproduct of robust economic growth in a globalized age are not inevitable at all”. Political choices not economic laws, have helped form the United States to become a world superpower and a nation of the very rich, the very poor and an increasingly fragile middle class. His approach to how society should handle these social and economic probelms is for the people to take back the goverment and make society equal again. He supports the idea of a “new, new deal” but thinks that the government is run by a movement that is dedicated to policies that are against most Americans' interests, and must try to compensate for that…
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…
Wealth inequality can be described as a lot of different things. The one that comes to mind the most though is the gap between the rich and poor. This gap is made up of a variety of different things. The one that comes to many minds is the tax code system. In order to correct the wealth gap in the United States efforts should be made to change the tax codes to close the gap between the rich and poor.…
The world always been an unequal place. Today, people are treated for not who they are, but for their religious background, race, gender and financial status. Inequality in the United States of America is present in a highest level. America is a country that reunites all seven continents in itself, moreover, it is possible to find people from various backgrounds here. However, not all of these people are treated equally. It is disappointing to see that how everyone is classified in this country. Indeed, if there is a crime the suspect must be a black male, if there is a terroristic attack or threat then the suspect is most likely to be a Muslim, if there is a robbery the suspect will be an illegal immigrant from Mexico. The root of this problem comes from the past century where people were judged by the color of their skin and this problem…
The Constitution of the United States declares everyone to be equal, but this is not a reality. Throughout history and continuing into the present day, there is disorder and conflict in the lives of working people in society. Inequality creates a conflict of power among social classes due to differing treatment based on race and gender as well as the effects of the economy on working society, and the role of social status in America. The ever present division between races and genders has caused a rise of discriminatory opportunity.…
The United States is a capitalism nation, which is a normal phenomenon to have a wealth inequality. Otherwise, it would be a communism nation. However, when the wealth gap is too wide, there would be a big problem. In recent years, the wealth gap has expanded historically and unprecedentedly wide. The middle class and working class people start suffering. If the gap keeps expanding, the United States will be destroying by this economic issue. A better way describing this situation, The United State is having a cancer that cannot be exacerbate and has to cure.…
When we hear the word “America” we often think of independence, opportunity, and success. Equal opportunity can be defined as every individual granted a fair chance and should be treated the same. The opportunity should overlook religion, race, sex, ethnicity, etc. For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been studying the nature of inequality and how it’s had a negative impact on society. From the outside looking in, it seems as if America is the land of equal opportunity, however, that is not accurate. The United States is not the land of equal opportunity. People of different races have to fight daily for fair opportunities. Inequality affects the ability of people who wants to improve the standards of their lives and contribution to society.…
If people aren’t earning enough a lot of money, all they need to do is work harder they’ll get ahead.…
The word “opportunity” is defined as the circumstance available to achieve one’s goals. It is a word that is especially applicable to America; the idea of America as nation where anybody has the opportunity to succeed is so embedded into the American identity that “opportunity” has transcended its dictionary definition. It has become an intrinsic part of the American Dream, a word ingrained with the history of many generations. To many, America is often considered the land of opportunity; from the earliest colonizers, who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean for religious freedom and economic gains, to pioneers who traveled in wagon trains to the American west in pursuit of gold and land, to immigrants throughout history who have come to America for a better life. America has always been seen as a place where people can strive to improve their lot in life, as long as they had the determination and perseverance to do so. Despite this idealistic image of America, however, it is not always supported in reality. We should aim to appreciate, to strive for, to live the ideal that hard work leads to success, but we should also acknowledge…