Ashley Bolt, Group #1 Stagnant Wages for Middle Class Families, 11/13/2015 SOC 225, 9am In today’s society, the middle class has become a major concern that needs to be addressed. Elizabeth Warren and other academic scholars have noticed the issue and have begun to discuss the reasoning for it. Elizabeth Warren wrote couple books that discuss the matter and she also personally takes about it in interviews, she gave very insightful reasoning’s to why this is occurring. To go even further into understanding this issue, a sociological approach was looked at.…
According to the United States Census, “In 2016 there were 40.6 million people in poverty” This is a lot of impoverished people living in a country that most people may consider the wealthiest nation on Earth. This is due to the issue of income inequality, and is well illustrated in the book “Dream Hoarders” by Richard V. Reeves. The book discusses income inequality in America, mainly between the upper and lower middle class. It discusses that the Middle class itself is divided on income issues.…
Lydia Samson The Vanishing Middle Class Analysis Government, politics, and the death of the “American Dream” are just a few of the topics discussed in The Vanishing Middle Class, a recent nonfiction account of the inequalities of the American economic system by economist Peter Temin. Temin describes the economic inequality of the current class system as grouped into the top 1% who hold 99% of the nation’s wealth, the poorer, lower income class, and the titled “vanishing” middle class. The problems within the economic class systems arise in that those in financial prosperity are experiencing a steady growth in their yearly income, the population of lower class people is only growing, meaning that the American middle class is rapidly shrinking.…
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.…
For decades the War on Poverty has been a debate area that every president running for office has used as an election tactic, especially democrats. Republican voters are usually Caucasian, upper class, and in higher positioned occupations; while those voting democratic are typically minorities fighting to stay at or above the poverty line. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson was the first politician to use the term War on Poverty during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This was during a time when the national poverty rate was around nineteen percent, adding to President Johnson’s Great Society plan. But the question still remains, after all of the promises and plans focused on the ending of poverty, is the culmination of poverty…
The middle class is the source of economic growth (Madland, 2011). Over hundreds of millions of Americans have worked hard to build an economy that provides for more than just the one percent. Starting businesses, self-improving, and innovative ideas are key components in developing a broad middle class. The nation’s economic growth is affected by all these factors and it’s constantly feeding off the success of the bourgeois. The Center for American Progress’s Middle Class and Economic Growth Project, has written policy proposals in hopes to provide a better understanding of the compelling correlation between a strong middle class and the nation’s economic health (Ettlinger,…
The widening gap between the upper and lower class is daunting. Within the same cities there are people who make millions of dollars, and some that make less than 15,000. The chairman of Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers notes this, "There are a lot of causes of inequality but [the erosion of the minimum wage] is one of the important ones for inequality at the bottom,"(Sahidi). The middle class is virtually gone.…
Since about 1980 the American Middle-class has taken an enormous hit and have all but disappeared from a massive transfer of wealth to the top 1% of income. A report from the Pew Research Center found that, for the first time since the 1970s, families defined as “middle income” are actually in a minority in the US, being destroyed from both ends by an enlarged lower wage group below them, and an enriched group above them. Also according to Pew, the average income of the upper tier today is seven times that of the middle tier, and in 1983 it was merely double. According to an article titled The Strange Case of America’s Disappearing Middle Class by Paul Mason from The Guardian, “49% of US aggregate income went to upper-income households in 2014, up from 29% in 1970.…
Since President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty in 1964 during his union address, there has been an increase shift in our attention in trying to lower the poverty rate in America. Today, the poverty line depends on how many people live in a household but these thresholds are too low and need to be higher. The poverty line should be a clear distinction that shows that if one is to be below it they cannot afford to pay for the all necessities in order to live. Living above the poverty line, even if it is just above, should mean that one can pay for bills that are necessary to live even if they are just making by doing this. While the poverty line has increased due to inflation in wages, what it has not accounted for is the increase cost in living.…
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…
Imagine not being able to provide the basic needs for your children. Imagine not knowing if you ever will get back on your feet. These are the thoughts thousands Americans face every day. Throughout history every great civilization has had poverty; Rome, Egypt, Britain and of course America. Poverty effects every race, age, gender and religion, no one is assured to be unaffected by it.…
Poverty in America Poverty has plagued the world for as long as anyone can recall, and it persists in America today. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 14.3% of the American population is in poverty. Minorities are at a disadvantage because of how easily they can be drawn or pushed into poverty. Poverty does not necessarily have a color, but minorities are often used as one. Poverty has become a major problem, which only grows every year.…
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 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.…
Poverty is general scarcity, dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. Who lives in poverty in the United States by this condition of being poor? Who can end it? In answering this question, I disagree that it is not the role of the Government to address poverty.…