In “The Upside of Income Inequality” Gary Becker and Kevin M. Murphy shed light on wealth gap, the reason behind it and the lesser thought perks it has. Throughout the article, the writers claim that it should be noted that inequality accord with being appreciative towards the return on investments made in human capital i.e. it rewards those who educate themselves more and are more adept and so is a positive catalyst toward the wage gap. According to me, the writers came across quite biased and ignorant. Though they did make some valid points regarding education and wage gap. It seemed as if they were quite determined to prove that education was the only reason behind the issue and disregarded important issues like unemployment, inherited wealth…
This brings up the issue of education in America. David Leonhardt references Thomas Piketty in his essay when he concludes that the more individuals there are who seek out education the smaller the gap between the upper and lower classes worldwide (Leonhardt). In other words a governmental push to create a more educated population will result in a smaller gap between classes across the…
I certainly think that the inequality of income and wealth is a social problem and it needs to be addressed. In the Wealth Inequality in America video we watched, it was stated that “the top 1% of America has 40% of all the nation’s wealth”. When the top 1% of the richest people in America have 40% of the total wealth of the nation, that is a problem. This is way beyond the point of the rich and wealth just living a luxurious lifestyle when they have 40% of the total wealth of the nation. I don’t like the idea of taking away money from people that worked hard to earn it, but at a certain point, I feel that the incomes they are making are way out of proportion and are not appropriate for the work they are doing.…
There are always two sides to every argument. While reading “The Upside of Income Inequality” by Gary Becker and Kevin M. Murphy, and “Inequality Has Been Going On Forever… but That Doesn't Mean It's Inevitable” by David Leonhardt, I found many similarities and differences. Although Becker / Murphy and Leonhardt have written articles that are alike in their subject matter, each man responds differently to their views of income inequality. There are multiple examples as to how Leonhardt does this and the first example is found in the evidence he provided in his article. Leonhardt begins by sharing his thoughts about a book by Thomas Piketty called “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.”…
After reading the “The Income Inequality Debate”, I started to think more about the financial situations that I am currently in and how I am preparing myself for the future. The videos were very informing on the topic and helped me actually visualize what was going on. The video “Wealth Inequality in America”, seemed like a more detailed version of “Is America Dreaming?: Understanding Social Mobility” so I got more from it while watching it. What stuck out most to me were the aspects of education and how it really influences those percentages.…
The United States is a country founded on ideals and unfulfilled aspirations of a perfect nation in which all are equal and no one group of people has too much power. Our history is filled with the constant struggle between fulfilling those ideals and maintaining status quo and allowing the nation to stagnate or regress allowing inequality to reign and certain groups to control the country. While our nation has struggled on this point it bears to ask whether real political and social change is actually possible in the United States, or if throughout our history and in our future we simply continue as we have since our nation was founded? While change has never come quietly and it often feels as though the journey is a constant one step forward…
America is experiencing a large gap in income inequality between the working class and the wealthy class. According to Derek Thompson, the new wealthy class, which is the top 1% of America population, holds nearly 40% of America’s wealth; while the new working and social class holds significantly less than 7%. There are opinions thinking that this gap is caused by the rich, who only think about their profits and don’t even care that America is having job a shortage or people are working low wage for several years. On the other hand, some blame the working and social class for their “immobility”, saying that they are not trying hard enough to climb out of the bottom while depending too much on the government subsidizes. Both opinions are true…
Thesis: America will eventually become a middle-class nation again; it just takes time. America is in a state where two sides are fighting against each other. The middle class wants higher minimum wage and higher paying jobs, while upper class wants lower taxes. Both sides only want what benefits themselves. It's possible for each side to get what they want, but according to Paul Krugman, it's just a matter of time.…
Inequality in income distribution is a visible trend in countries worldwide. Many variables factor into what causes the disproportion such as countries’ taxes and minimum wages. The state of income distribution in the United States of America has changed over time and is currently experiencing heightening inequality. Additionally, there are many debates between the conservatives and liberals about why this trend is happening and how it should be addressed. The conservatives feel as though it will fix itself once the economy begins to grow again, while the liberals believe that increasing taxes and implementing new policies will help aid its reduction.…
Today in America we live in the richest country in the history of the world, but that reality means very little because much of that wealth is controlled by a very small handful of individuals. America is now one of the worst major developed countries in terms of economic equality in the entire world, and at the gap is at its worst point since the 1920’s. The middle-class of the nation has been slowly disappearing and having its money go up towards the upper-class. And to make it all worse 58% of all new wealth in the United States goes towards the top 1% of earners since 2009. Wealth and income inequality is one of the hardest issues to fix that the United States currently faces, because of the Supreme Court decision in 2010 on the case Citizens…
Throughout time income inequality has existed throughout the world. Although, we as Americans have “equal rights and opportunities” to be as successful as the next person, it is difficult to achieve these things while not being paid and treated fairly. Income inequality refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population. In the United States there is a blatant income and social inequality. The reason being is that people in the United States have been so accustomed to the social norms of living comfortably with the wages they make.…
Income inequality has been a progressively growing issue in the United States, even today. The problem dates back all the way to the Great Depression, although some researchers tend to think that it is older than that. The difference between the wealth of higher-income families and lower-income families has become a great issue. Many people, including our government, think that they know how they can fix it. They have tried time and time again to come up with solutions, yet we are still facing the same obstacle that we were almost one hundred years ago.…
I have never thought about the way wealth is distributed in the U.S. until you showed us the chart where it talked about how much the top 1% make compared to the rest of the U.S. the numbers were staggering. I would have never believed that a small amount of the population could account for so much of the wealth in the United States. This wasn’t even the worse; the gap between the rich and the working class just keeps on growing and growing. “The bottom 80% of the population combines for only 4.7% of the wealth compared to the next 20% of the population combines for 95.3% of the wealth.” (Gooch).…
In a capitalistic based economy such as the United States, it creates incomes that are small and large. Having an unequal amount of large or low incomes is called income inequality. Income inequality has become a major problem in the United States, increasing 24% from 1968 to 2012” (Cochran). The gap between the rich and the poor is growing at an ever increasing rate. In the United States the gap is measured by relative poverty, or “being below one-half the nations income” (Cochran).…
Income Inequality not inevitable: Annotated Bibliography of Income Inequality White collar, blue collar, or no collar. This is the hand dealt to millions of Americans who face the daily hypocrisy of our modern system of income ‘equality’. The fact that the middle class once enjoyed the equal distribution of wealth is now almost nonexistent. As the years have gone by, the level of income inequality has increased and so has the poverty. There is no equality for those who make up most of the middle class.…