Some people make money more than they need, but some people cannot make money to support their daily basic need. I think it influences me that education is necessary and important if people want to have an upward mobility, since most of the working poor people do not receive much education. Therefore, I will work harder to get my college degree which might open the door for achieving the upward mobility or stay in the upper social…
The acquisition of money and possessions has replaced more meaningful ways of measuring our achievements. Many people take money as the only way to decide whether a person is successful or not but that's not always the case. The contribution to the society is more important than money. The benevolent helped Ronald Reagan and Cesar Chavez offer to those in need of help.…
I believe we live in a society where the opportunity to be successful is supposed to be available to everyone yet isn’t. Each individual is supposed to have the opportunity to surpass their potential and become the best possible version of themselves yet they don’t. These days, success means graduating high school, going to college, and getting a well-paying job. But the opportunity to go to college isn’t available to everyone making it hard for them to get a well paying job and earn the money they need to survive.…
The idea that working hard will make you successful isn’t always correct. Many children born into low income families are unable to be any more successful than their parents. “40% of people born into the bottom 5th don’t achieve any higher as an adult.” Many low income children who work for everything and try to better themselves still don’t achieve as much as high income children who have everything handed to them. “It’s all about glass floors and glass ceilings.…
Like many conservatives, Greg Mankiw argues that wealth inequality is not a problem in itself because people earn what they deserve based on their career and talents. If you aren’t making enough, you should try harder. He views money not as a desire, but a byproduct of work. But what are the implications of this viewpoint for the poor? Many people in lower income brackets also work hard for their paychecks, but are still unable to earn the money and benefits to lead a comfortable lifestyle.…
Income inequality is the reason for America’s high influx of wealth to the upper percent of our country. Due to a now misrepresented governmental system, Americans wages and way of life has drastically lowered and as a result, has halted America’s once prestigious influence on the world 's economy. With the American dream far from capable in today 's economy, many question America’s opportunities for people of different backgrounds and countries. In our society the greatest achievement anyone can accomplish is getting the American dream, this however, is a struggle in it’s own.…
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.…
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…
The United States of American has a class system that divides people into three layers, the lower class (poor), middle class, and the upper class (rich). Income determines what class people are categorized. There is mobility between the classes. How does that happen? One of the largest factors that contributes to this is education.…
Every American dreams of finding a job that pays well, to build a comfortable life for their families. Some succeed in their quest for a better life, but unfortunately, many do not have the same result. In our society, a good portion of the population is forced to hold the base of our country in place while hardly being redeemed for their time and effort, and thus the problem of income inequality emerges. There is no question that there is a disparity between the haves and the have-nots. There is a gap between the rich and the poor.…
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and presenter of the documentary Inequality for All, once said “The faith that anyone could move from rags to riches - with enough guts and gumption, hard work and nose to the grindstone - was once at the core of the American Dream. Unfortunately today we know that this is no longer the case in the United States. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to increase as the rich get richer and the poor can’t get out of poverty. Contrary to popular belief this is not due to lack of hard work but due to a lack of opportunity and this has become a huge problem for the United States. Although we can’t have every person in this country be wealthy due to the system of capitalism, it is possible to decrease…
In a capitalistic based economy such as the United States, it creates incomes that are small and large. Having an unequal amount of large or low incomes is called income inequality. Income inequality has become a major problem in the United States, increasing 24% from 1968 to 2012” (Cochran). The gap between the rich and the poor is growing at an ever increasing rate. In the United States the gap is measured by relative poverty, or “being below one-half the nations income” (Cochran).…
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.…
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).…
According to Brym and Lie (2012), social capital consists of the networks and connections individuals have with others that are of value, as they enable individuals to have more opportunities depending on the amount of possessed diverse networks (p.121). This paper will provide an example of how I was able to use social capital to my advantage in terms of employment, and how this is example is connected to the concept of stratification and conflict theory. Then I will end off with explaining how the sociological imagination allows me to better understand the competitiveness of the job market. An example of how I used social capital to my advantage to gain employment, would be when I was at my cousins wedding two years ago.…