1. The main thing American’s do not realize about income inequality is how large the gap is between the wealthiest 1% and the other 99%. America ranks as having one of the largest gaps in distribution of wealth. In 1978, the typical male worker’s income was 48,302; in 2010 the typical male worker’s income has decreased to 33,751. However, the people in the top 1% have increased in income, from 393,682 in 1978 to 1,101,089 in 2010 (Inequality for all, 2013). The gap is not getting smaller but actually is becoming larger and larger every year. Nick Hanauer, a successful entrepreneur, believes the key to a great economy is a strong middle class. It is the middle class who contributes the most, consumer-spending accounts for 70% of U.S. economy
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Personally, I was unaware of what these CEOs and large corporations were risking and how they negatively affected American families. The problem is that American’s think the inequality is not as bad as it seem; they believe “that’s just the way it is”. A Harvard business professor asked 5,000 Americans what they thought was the ideal distribution of wealth was and what they thought it was actually at. They were shocked to find out that the inequality was far worse than what they had guessed (Wealth Inequality in America, 2012). However, they do have the power to change these circumstances. Karl Marx’s theory of class-consciousness states that class-consciousness is the awareness of one’s own social or economic rank in society (Henslin, 2013 p. 169). If American’s become class conscious and realize that the majority of our problems are shared, we can then unite and try to fight against these corporations. We would be able to convict more CEOs who are responsible for causing an economic crisis and costing millions of working American’s their life savings. Many CEOs and entrepreneurs do in fact work hard for what they have; however they surely do not work 380 times harder than the average worker (Wealth Inequality in America, 2012). We would be able to fight for higher wages to grow the middle class and have the government limit the top …show more content…
Federal Reserve to bail them out. In Sept., 2008, Lehman Brothers stock collapsed and ran out of cash. To avoid a catastrophic economic collapse, Paulson and Bernanke asked congress for 700 billion dollars to bail out the banks (Inside Job, 2010). The U.S. Federal Reserve helped them out of bankruptcy by using the taxpayer’s money; AIG’s bailout alone cost taxpayers 150 billion dollars (Inside Job, 2010). The CEOs knew that they were making risky investments and yet continued to gamble with the economy. This was no accident and the taxpayers suffered the most, many lost their life savings, homes, and became unemployed. However, no CEOs were ever convicted, no executives were fired, and on top of that, they took home a millions of dollars in bonuses. This is an excellent example of White Collar Crime. White Collar Crime is Edwin Sutherland’s term for crimes committed by people of respectable and high social status in the course of their occupations (Henslin, 2012). They should have had some consequence for breaking several laws. However, they are so powerful and wealthy, that they can practically buy their way out of all their crimes. This is one of America’s greatest
Personally, I was unaware of what these CEOs and large corporations were risking and how they negatively affected American families. The problem is that American’s think the inequality is not as bad as it seem; they believe “that’s just the way it is”. A Harvard business professor asked 5,000 Americans what they thought was the ideal distribution of wealth was and what they thought it was actually at. They were shocked to find out that the inequality was far worse than what they had guessed (Wealth Inequality in America, 2012). However, they do have the power to change these circumstances. Karl Marx’s theory of class-consciousness states that class-consciousness is the awareness of one’s own social or economic rank in society (Henslin, 2013 p. 169). If American’s become class conscious and realize that the majority of our problems are shared, we can then unite and try to fight against these corporations. We would be able to convict more CEOs who are responsible for causing an economic crisis and costing millions of working American’s their life savings. Many CEOs and entrepreneurs do in fact work hard for what they have; however they surely do not work 380 times harder than the average worker (Wealth Inequality in America, 2012). We would be able to fight for higher wages to grow the middle class and have the government limit the top …show more content…
Federal Reserve to bail them out. In Sept., 2008, Lehman Brothers stock collapsed and ran out of cash. To avoid a catastrophic economic collapse, Paulson and Bernanke asked congress for 700 billion dollars to bail out the banks (Inside Job, 2010). The U.S. Federal Reserve helped them out of bankruptcy by using the taxpayer’s money; AIG’s bailout alone cost taxpayers 150 billion dollars (Inside Job, 2010). The CEOs knew that they were making risky investments and yet continued to gamble with the economy. This was no accident and the taxpayers suffered the most, many lost their life savings, homes, and became unemployed. However, no CEOs were ever convicted, no executives were fired, and on top of that, they took home a millions of dollars in bonuses. This is an excellent example of White Collar Crime. White Collar Crime is Edwin Sutherland’s term for crimes committed by people of respectable and high social status in the course of their occupations (Henslin, 2012). They should have had some consequence for breaking several laws. However, they are so powerful and wealthy, that they can practically buy their way out of all their crimes. This is one of America’s greatest