Poverty In The American Economy

Improved Essays
Show More
In order to “get ahead” in the American economy, it’s stressed that we get good educations, good jobs, and have a good work ethic. We’re told that those who work hard are rewarded, and those who don’t find their way moving to the top are just lazy. In reality, though, that’s not the case. According to the video, only 1 in 10 people living in the bottom 1/5th of the population will ever make it to the top, and 1 in 3 will stay in the bottom where they receive only 5% of the wealth. It gets even worse when you break it down into different categories, like focusing on blacks. Based on statistics and observing reality, economic mobility is a lot more difficult than just “working hard” and “not being lazy”. Where you start out in life really does play a big …show more content…
The top tier of income earners are allowed so many tax breaks, when that money could be put into public programs to better the lives of everyone (think of schools, libraries, public transportation, etc.). I also think welfare programs are a wonderful way to help people “climb the ladder”, but the stigma attached to the word “welfare”, and in return the hesitance that comes with funding programs and treating recipients as equals, diminishes the effects these programs could have on the distribution of opportunities in this country. Policy is a hard thing for me to brainstorm about, because I know it’s impossible to get everyone to agree on something, especially when it comes to public programs. So many little cracks need to be filled to achieve economic mobility, especially when you start looking at minority groups and “uneducated” individuals. I look at this type of thing as needing to first change the minds of (typically) conservative lawmakers, which sounds like a daunting task that I really have no idea how to accomplish, because even humanizing the economically disadvantaged people of this country tends to not do the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of Chapter 7 Land Of Opportunities Loewen
    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analysis Of Chapter 7 Land Of Opportunities Loewen

    Americans like to preach on how America is the “Land of Opportunity,” even though not everyone is given an equal opportunity. Babies born into the lower classes are usually less healthy, often grow up without their parents around often, they go to a school where they aren’t expected to excel, and the teachers don’t allow them to excel. When they graduate, they probably won’t go to college, so they get a job that doesn’t make…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Summary Of Angela Whitiker's Climb
    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Summary Of Angela Whitiker's Climb

    As “Social mobility and inequality: Upperbound” (p. 32) shows, “More than 40% of those Americans born in the bottom quintile remain stuck there as adults”. The selectivity of who makes it up the social ladder is a prevalent aspect of our American economy. And while less than half of Americans in general stay in the bottom quartile, according to an article written by Richard Reeves: “51% of the black Americans born into the lowest fifth of the earnings distribution remain there at age 40”. This widens the gap of black americans in poverty compared to whites. So although Whitiker’s story is an inspiring one that could be used to illustrate meritocracys role in America, the reality is she is one of the fewer than half of black americans who are able to make it out of lower class.…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    America's Economy Dbq
    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages

    America's Economy Dbq

    America's Economy “We are becoming a society in which the poor tend to stay poor, no matter how hard they work;” (Document A), to countless Americans this sounds like a rigid caste society, the polar opposite of America. Yet, a considerable amount of Americans firmly assert this is the reality of America today. In reality, the economy works relatively the same as it did half a century ago, however, people today are not working as diligently nor as much. The economy, as well as the opportunity of social mobility, is still truly alive but the work ethic needed to achieve it is dead.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Summary Of Poverty In America
    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Summary Of Poverty In America

    The author’s main point in writing this book is too educate people about what poverty is and how it is affecting our society today. She also writes different effective ways that we can change and help people in poverty. Beegle says her goal is to simply make a difference for those living in poverty and to give them real opportunities to do something great with their life. I think Beegle wanted to explain real world problems and tell her own personal story to explain what poverty really means to her. When reading this book and seeing all the statistics about how many families live in poverty I felt more and more blessed and I think that is what she wanted to get across to her audience.…

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    How Does Income Inequality Affect The American Dream
    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages

    How Does Income Inequality Affect The American Dream

    Introduction Income inequality in the United States has come to metaphorically be seen as a ladder of income success in which the rungs in the top become further spread, implying that the top ten percent on the ladder own a much bigger share of the national income. The question therefore is proposed, does income inequality impair the American dream of upward mobility? As part of Intelligence Squared US we hear from Elise Gould and Nick Hanaver arguing for the proposition and Edward Conard and Scott Winship in the opposition. On the proposition we hear from Elise Gould and Nick Hanaver who argue that income inequality is a major factor in regards to the poor being able to achieve upward mobility. Gould as well as Hanaver aim to enforce the…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Rethinking American Poverty
    • 199 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Rethinking American Poverty

    A podcast by Maxwell Gladwell, My Little Hundred Million, tells the story of Hank Rowan. Hank Rowan donated 100 million dollars to New Jersey’s Glassboro University in 1992. Rowan’s donation was one of the largest of its kind at the time, he donated to a small college with a middling academic reputation. Gladwell discusses the inequities in financing higher education. In the article, Rethinking American Poverty, by Mark R. Rank, he challenges readers to redefine what causes poverty.…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Income Inequality In America
    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Essay On Income Inequality In America

    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…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Income Inequality In America
    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Income Inequality In America

    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.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Income Gap In America Essay
    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Income Gap In America Essay

    Income Gap in America Today, America is considered one of the richest countries in the world, however when our economy is examined closer, the reality is that much of our nation's wealth is controlled by a tiny handful of individuals, leaving the bottom 99 percent to fight for the remaining 78 percent of the wealth. Currently, The U.S. ranks around the 30th percentile in income inequality globally, meaning 70% of countries have a more equal income distribution. Since the 1970’s, the issue of income disparity has become a very large social, economic, and moral issue. Over the past four decades, the income of America’s top one percent has tripled, while the average income increased by less than 25%. To put into numbers, the super rich .01% of…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Decline Of Poverty In The United States
    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Decline Of Poverty In The United States

    It has been over 50 years since Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty in his 1964 State of the Union address. Since then, our nation has failed to eradicate poverty in the United States. Proof of failure is displayed in high poverty rates, an abundance of homelessness, and inflated crime. Poverty rates fluctuate throughout the years, but the overall trend shows a decline.…

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    What Is White Privilege?
    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What Is White Privilege?

    I would like to begin by referring first to the ideology of the American Dream; America is the land of boundless opportunity in which persons can go as far as their own qualities takes them. Interpreting this ideology, you get out of the structure what you put into it. Getting ahead is apparently based on separate merit, which is commonly viewed as a arrangement of factors, including inborn aptitudes, working hard, having the right attitude, and having high moral nature and honesty. Americans not only have a tendency to think that is how the system should work, but most Americans also think that is how the system does work. Differences in opportunities in the United States persist among people of one race and another, or between individuals…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Wealth And Poverty In The United States
    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Wealth And Poverty In The United States

    Wealth and poverty seem to be controlled more by the government as well as modern society rather than individually constructed. First off, just because someone is labeled as hard working does not automatically make them rich. Some of the hardest workers people are labeled as a blue-collar worker, not ample amounts of money, but live an honest life. The idea of poverty has been created by society to label those with little wealth. With this being said, the amount of effort put into one's work may have little to no effect on the income one receives, therefore proving that poverty as well as other social classes were formed based on numbers and relativity of the rest of society.…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Effects Of Income Inequality
    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Effects Of Income Inequality

    Income inequality has become an increasingly talked about problem in America and rightfully so. At the end of 2012 the top one percent of families in the United States accounted for over 20 percent of national income compared to the top one percent accounting for 10 percent of national income in 1970 according to Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez from the London School of Economics. Common sense would suggest that in order to compress this inequality gap, poor people making more money would have a profound effect on decreasing the gap in income, however a closer look at this phenomenon suggests that this is not the case. In a capitalist society your income is a reflection of the value that you bring to your employer, which is a reflection of…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Summary Of The Upside Of Income Inequality
    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Summary Of The Upside Of Income Inequality

    With a title like “The Upside of Income Inequality”, the article certainly got the attention it wanted. This article, written by Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy, outlined what the rising income inequality means for the United States. They propose that the rising income inequality stems mostly from the increase in the value of education, spiking in the 1980s. They state that this increase in value better helps minorities as women and African Americans are gaining more from college than men/Caucasian. As a whole, society is getting more equal, and more Americans are going to college.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Poverty In The United States Essay
    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Poverty In The United States Essay

    In the United States, one of the richest countries in the world, why are so many people in poverty? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the “official poverty rate in 2014 was 14.8 percent, which means there were 46.7 million people in poverty” (U.S. Census Bureau). Poverty is an important and emotional issue. To understand poverty in the United States, it is essential to look behind these numbers to see the actual living conditions of the individuals the government deems to be poor. The U.S. Census Bureau uses a set of guidelines to determine if families meet that poverty threshold.…

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings