An article by Neil Gilbert called The Inequality Hype talks about the inequality that we face today. It provides statistics by talking about a survey where seventy-six percent of the public believe that the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. About the same percentage was calculated in 1987 which means that for the last thirty years about three-fourths of the population believe that the two classes are separating from each other even more. I believe that this is true because in today’s society there is a huge division between those two classes and the middle classes is either staying the same or changing into the lower class because they cannot afford to pay taxes since the middle class is the class that pays more. For…
The Great Divergence by Timothy Noah explores the potential causes and solutions for the crisis of rising income inequality in America. I would label the book as enlightening and informative because even though I knew income inequality was an issue in the United States, I had a very limited knowledge as to the causes and solutions of this growing problem before reading Noah’s book. I found Noah’s book to be written in a much more comprehensible manner than that of previous books read for this class due to the more commonly used style and rhetoric that I am more accustomed to reading. The book has a logical structure as it starts by dispelling commonly believed myths about the causes of income inequality and ends with presenting possible solutions.…
The issue of Income disparity of the working class has been a prevalent economic issue, especially since the industrial revolution in the United States. In The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, he explores the exploitive nature of capitalism during the infancy of the industrial revolution in the United States and the struggles of the immigrant working class. While this piece of literature is a work of fiction, it gives a typical account of the abhorrent working conditions and the lack of policies which protect the rights of workers. This expose helped push legislation which aimed to protect the rights of workers, and strengthened unions. While this helped with alleviating the issue of income disparity, there has been an increase in income disparity…
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…
Both Paul Krugman and Robert H. Frank have written very informative pieces about the problem of economic inequality in the United States. In Robert H. Frank’s essay, Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore, he explains that the United States got to this point of income inequality through years of economic stagnation caused by policies that favor the rich, and discusses the harmful effects of this phenomena. In Paul Krugman’s writing, he too says that income inequality is a problem caused by economic and fiscal policies designed to help the rich and he outlines the ways the United States can fix the severe problem of income inequality.. They are both persuasive essays with similar writing styles. When analyzing the works of both writers, we can…
For many years, many Americans “considered the prospect of growing income inequality to be unacceptably undemocratic.” (Noah, 18). Income inequality is at its highest level since before the Great Depression and it is a situation that divides Americans. The best way to promote equal justice in American and the best way to maintain strong economic growth is to have…
In “Why Income Inequality Threatens Democracy” Ray Williams states “In 81 percent of American counties, the median family income, about $52,000, is less than it was 15 years ago. This is despite the fact that the economy has grown 83 % in the past quarter-century and corporate profits have doubled. American workers produce twice the amount of goods and services as 25 years ago, but get less of the pie.” The income inequality in the U.S has been steadily increasing for decades. Not only is the wealth gap highly concentrated to the wealthiest people but also the income gap is just as unequal.…
With the nation in heavy debate over the passage of the new Republican tax plan, attention is drawn yet again to wealth inequality in America. Regardless of the most efficacious solution to balancing the American budget, members of all socioeconomic classes are under scrutiny. Tensions are as high now as ever with the upper one percent owning nearly forty percent of the nation’s wealth, and the bottom fifth owning zero or negative wealth. In times like these, the barbarity of human nature is revealed, and prejudices are thinly veiled.…
For example, data shows that the income of the top 1% increased by 148% while the income of the top 0.1% grew by 343%. Meanwhile, the income of the top 0.01% rose by an astonishing 599% (Krugman 388). These statistics show that while poor Americans are getting poorer, the rich are actually getting richer. The assertion that the wealth gap between poor and rich Americans is best conceptualized by Robert Reich in his article “Why the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer.” In this article, Reich writes that Americans were in the same economic boat at one point in time.…
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.…
According to the Census Bureau in 2010, “there were 42 million poor people in the United States,” and a large portion of those who reside in the middle class are approaching the poverty line, thus, augmenting the amount of people who live in the lower class. As a result, income inequality has become a paramount topic in recent times, especially in the 2016 election. In addition to politicians and other government members discussing this gargantuan issue, professors, journalists, and others have written income inequality, and provided ways to fix the issue. The authors Robert B. Reich, Gregory Mantsios, Alan Ajas, Daniel Bustillo, William Darity Jr., and Darrick Hamilton are experts within the field of economics and labor; however, all of these…
The Income and Wealth Inequality of America As a capitalist nation, the United State of America is facing a serious problem, which is the inequality of wealth and income. In pace with the growth of the economy, the rich people are getting richer and the poor people are getting poorer. The gap between the rich and poor is widening unprecedentedly fast. Why is that happening?…
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).…
The issue of inequality exists on a global platform and touches on all facets our lives. The power to accumulate and redistribute wealth is with the wealthy elite that can manipulate markets at will, however, Stiglitz clearly defines the dangers of such to society, “…there are two ways to become wealthy: to create wealth or to take wealth away from others. The former adds to society. The latter typically subtracts from it…” (Stiglitz 396).…
Income is one of the top ways people measure “economic inequality”. The United States is ranked tenth in income inequality compared to France and the U.K., but after adding the taxes, the United States had the second-highest level of inequality. Disparity around the world is growing in developing countries and many Americans agree with the quote that “today it’s really true that the rich just get richer while the poor get poorer” (Pew Research Surveys). The poor develop a mind set that they do not deserve any better than what they are accustomed to. For example, government assistance and not applying themselves in the real world.…