Article Review Most people in today’s society are unaware of their political atmosphere. Political matters have become a great concern to some and less of a concern to others. People are either completely engaged and informed about governmental issues or closed off about what goes on in the political world. The truth of the matter is, it is critical for the people to know and fully understand what takes place in today’s government, due to all emerging issues that we see unfold.…
In “35 Soul-Crushing Facts about American Income Inequality”, the author, Larry Schwartz, makes it clear that the ever-increasing income and tax cuts the wealthiest Americans receive, as well as the decline in labor unions, results in the rest of the nation’s citizens to fare worse economically than those of previous generations. The writer shows that economic inequality, the difference between incomes across a population, has currently reached peak levels unprecedented since the Roaring Twenties, the period right before the Great Depression. Schwartz does an excellent job of supporting his claims by providing a vast amount of statistical evidence and historical background, which shows how dire the current situation of economic inequality is in the U.S.A. Despite the fact that the middle class has been taxed at an equal rate…
Now what brought that up? Thing that make it is a strong middle class is consumer spending. This 70% now what brings it is the middle class. The wealthy turned to stock options but they middle class are struggling and they need help. He interviews a few people and some of them have been said to be middle class but they cannot afford to save money for houses, they stated losing their jobs, they are unable to bring food to the table.…
As a result, the middle class, seeing the poor a rung or two behind them, incorrectly believes that they are actually advancing. They fail to recognize that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of rungs between them and the 1% percent, Wall Street, and the American elite. As a result, they don’t unite with the poor and working class. They don’t challenge the…
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.…
Journalist and author, Edward McClelland, writer of “RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013”, clearly believes that the American middle class is dying and that it should not happen. McClelland states “For the majority of human history—and in the majority of countries today—there have been only two classes: aristocracy and peasantry” (McClelland 550). He asserts that the middle class that flourished following the end of World War II has diminished since America’s first Great Recession in the 1980s and that our federal government is to blame for the decline because it withdrew its supervision of the economy and allowed global free trade (McClelland 550-555). He promotes his idea of the middle class through examples of its prime time when middle class thrived.…
In the 1980’s, the top 1% of income earners in the US earned 10% of the pre-tax wages (Noah, 2012) but that number has increased to 20% by 2013 (Piketty, 2014). Another worry is that this consolidation of wealth that we have seen in recent years may lead to monopolization of labor, which may lead to less consumer freedoms, general lack of competition, and other market manipulations which were discussed in class (Lynn and Longman 2010). While income disparity is a major factor in the changing economic climate in the United States, there are political changes which need to be taken into account, such as the globalization of markets through free trade, and changes in laws regarding unions, as well as changes in tax…
As many Americans try and move on from the harsh start to the 20th century by means of a corrupt government, unfavorable workers’ union, and low pay. The Roaring 1920s brings along much-needed leisure time for citizens and somewhat better unions for workers. Unaware to eyes of many other countries, the United States is facing a pressing issue that natives do not take very lightly. That is wealth inequality. As time rolls along people are irritated at national corporations that are not regulated by the government, consistently continue to receive high amounts of wealth, where many other workers possibly get a mere 25 cents.…
Foroohar references Joseph Stiglitz, the Columbia professor and former economic advisor to Bill Clinton when she shows how both “Republican and Democratic administrations have been at fault in crafting not only policies that forward inequality, but also a narrative that tells us that we can’t do anything about it” (Foroohar). This idea further supports the belief that the government must be challenged in order to create new laws and rules to structure our economy so that it is more balanced. Stiglitz emphasizes this idea when he explains how “it’s about the choices we make with the rules we create to structure our economy” (Foroohar). One of the reasons that the United States has not put forth effort in order to change the inevitable outcome of the lower classes, is the fact that they do not actually know how wealthy the upper class is. If the lower class was aware of the economic gap between classes there would be “riots in the streets” (Fitz).…
To “Make America Great Again” we must take Robert Reich’s proposal into thought. Removal of politics from our democracy will enable corruption to yield, finally halting concentration of wealth at the very top. In this age, recommendations such as this one being spelled out for us should assist our consideration for who is running our current democracy and how we can take part in the decision-making process. Time is of the essence to bring America back to their feet.…
Pretend you work your hardest on something expecting to get a noticed for it, but someone does the same thing and gets recognition for it. See? That’s how inequality in America is like and what many of us go through on a day to day basis. Life has all sorts of downs and ups to it as we all know it right? Let me put it this way, America only gives certain privileged people easy roads in life, while others will have to work harder to get to that point in life.…
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.…
Five mats - one for each child and then an extra for herself. When Maria Garcia moved from Mexico, she had imagined a different life for herself and future family. The United States promised her freedom, but she didn’t get any. Held hostage by her low income (personification), she was a slave to her bills. Everyday digging herself deeper, and deeper into the hole of impending debt, dreading the day her oldest child would ask if he could go to college.…
Reich’s From Beyond Outrage describes the current status of the United States economy as a “troubling trend” that allowed for “a larger and larger share of the nation’s income and wealth was going to the very top [of the top 1 percent].” Reich then describes that under the Clinton administration, the President wanted to reverse this course the American economy was taking, but the administration could not accomplish this. After this, Reich explains that recent events that occurring in the United States, such as “Occupiers [in 2011]” and polling conducted by New York Times/CBS News, which shows “66 percent of Americans say that the nation 's wealth should be more evenly distributed.” Additionally, Reich explains that Wall Street executives and other corporate executives are getting more money while others suffer. The current economic system has Americans feel as though that with their current pay rates, they cannot get what they need to survive, thus, crippling the United States…
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?…