Stiglitz Scholarship Essay

When you referred to economics as the “dismal science”, it was not an exaggeration whatsoever. Stiglitz provides a grim look at today’s inequality epidemic, an economy crisis so hulking that it makes itself relevant in every American citizen’s life. One aspect of instability becoming embedded into American culture is a constant fear due to the ever-present danger of falling from comfortable living into poverty. When shown the broken down numbers of a single parent income, I audibly gasped. If that were my own income breakdown. I’d also need to figure in student loans, which would leave me living above my means. Throughout the entire college process, so much focus was placed on the starting salary of my major or how successful could I really be. After I answered the monetary question, and only then, could my overall satisfaction with the focus of study be addressed. While I’m sure these economic anxieties have always been present, I can personally attest that the anxiety is becoming instilled in citizens younger and younger. Not only is salary anxiety being emphasized in college preparation, but often, just the basic availability of a job in your chosen field seems unreachable. Sometimes, it seems …show more content…
Providing a safety net in times of distress should, in my opinion, stand tall as a main tenet of the United States. For the government to refuse one of their basic requirements, due to partisan quibbles over if the “poverty in America is not real poverty”, demonstrates a lack of urgency on the matter of economic inequality. However, a lack of urgency is the anthesis of how the government should be treating our quickly sinking economy. America serves as a model for so many countries around the world and remaining complacent with our clearly broken system does not do us any