Inequality
We live in a country that is full of opportunity, or so we are told. In early America you had the chance to work hard and become successful, but in today’s society working, hard doesn’t guarantee success. In Brandon King’s article, “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” King believes that the American Dream is more alive than ever but has morphed from people wanting to be filthy rich to wanting a stable, middle class lifestyle (611). The American Dream was this idea that you could go from being dirt poor to rich beyond your wildest dreams if you worked hard. But nowadays, most people don’t strive for that lifestyle. Instead people focus on having a steady career and saving for retirement. Is wanting a steady career really …show more content…
This means that while the richer are getting richer, the typical middle class family is struggling to even get by. Another point of view to put into perspective is by Robert Frank from the Wall Street Journal, “Today’s rich had formed their own virtual country… The rich weren’t just getting rich, they were becoming financial foreigners, creating their own country within a country a country, their own society within a society, and their own economy within an economy” (561). We live in a world where the rich and the middle class don’t rub shoulders, instead the rich look down upon the rest of the country. The fact is that the backbone of this country, which is the middle class, is supporting the rich. The American middle class is the heart of the economy. Made up of over 120 million Americans as of 2015 is now struggling. Since the year 1971, the middle class has gotten smaller ever decade. A study by the Pew Research Center shows that from 1971 to 2015, the middle class has fallen from 61 percent to 50 percent. The income gap between the upper class and middle class is one of the main reasons for this decrease in the middle class. While the middle class is struggling to even get by, the richer are living …show more content…
In Kings article, King provides a statistic describing that people from 2005 to 2010, the percentage of people buying homes dropped from 69 percent to 66.5 percent. This statistic however doesn’t take in account that in 2005, the reason for this drop in homeownership was due to families filing for bankruptcy from taking on more debt then they could handle. There was an economic hardship that King failed to realize. This is one reason as to why Brandon King should not be considered a credible source. Inequality is not the only thing that is making it hard for Americans to achieve the American Dream, economic mobility also plays a major part. Social mobility and income inequality go hand to hand. Not only is America’s high income inequality making it harder for equal opportunity, but it is making social mobility difficult as well. Due to income inequality, people are finding it harder to climb out of their social class and move up the economic
We live in a country that is full of opportunity, or so we are told. In early America you had the chance to work hard and become successful, but in today’s society working, hard doesn’t guarantee success. In Brandon King’s article, “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” King believes that the American Dream is more alive than ever but has morphed from people wanting to be filthy rich to wanting a stable, middle class lifestyle (611). The American Dream was this idea that you could go from being dirt poor to rich beyond your wildest dreams if you worked hard. But nowadays, most people don’t strive for that lifestyle. Instead people focus on having a steady career and saving for retirement. Is wanting a steady career really …show more content…
This means that while the richer are getting richer, the typical middle class family is struggling to even get by. Another point of view to put into perspective is by Robert Frank from the Wall Street Journal, “Today’s rich had formed their own virtual country… The rich weren’t just getting rich, they were becoming financial foreigners, creating their own country within a country a country, their own society within a society, and their own economy within an economy” (561). We live in a world where the rich and the middle class don’t rub shoulders, instead the rich look down upon the rest of the country. The fact is that the backbone of this country, which is the middle class, is supporting the rich. The American middle class is the heart of the economy. Made up of over 120 million Americans as of 2015 is now struggling. Since the year 1971, the middle class has gotten smaller ever decade. A study by the Pew Research Center shows that from 1971 to 2015, the middle class has fallen from 61 percent to 50 percent. The income gap between the upper class and middle class is one of the main reasons for this decrease in the middle class. While the middle class is struggling to even get by, the richer are living …show more content…
In Kings article, King provides a statistic describing that people from 2005 to 2010, the percentage of people buying homes dropped from 69 percent to 66.5 percent. This statistic however doesn’t take in account that in 2005, the reason for this drop in homeownership was due to families filing for bankruptcy from taking on more debt then they could handle. There was an economic hardship that King failed to realize. This is one reason as to why Brandon King should not be considered a credible source. Inequality is not the only thing that is making it hard for Americans to achieve the American Dream, economic mobility also plays a major part. Social mobility and income inequality go hand to hand. Not only is America’s high income inequality making it harder for equal opportunity, but it is making social mobility difficult as well. Due to income inequality, people are finding it harder to climb out of their social class and move up the economic