Social Inequality In America

America is a country that was founded on the basic principles of equality and opportunity for all. This belief that anyone with a dream, who just put in some hard work could get ahead is simply no longer true in modern day society. The American Dream many years ago relied on how hard one was willing to work to achieve his or her dreams, but now is mostly an issue of what social class one is born into. Roughly 43% of Americans born into the bottom quintile and 40% of those born into the top quintile of income remain in that group for the rest of their lives.
Typically, there are two major theories as to why social inequality exists. The first blames the poor for not enacting their individual agency to break the social structure. People tend …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, one of the key reasons why there is such a massive social separation between the rich and poor is the ability to receive a higher education. This growing separation year after year drives social inequality to grow just as proportionally. My idea to greatly reduce social inequality involves making college free for all students who wish to go. Recently, Germany has offered free tuition to all of its students without any major financial repercussions to its country. As preposterous as this idea seems financially to America, it would vastly reduce the gap between the rich and poor, making nearly everyone actually have the opportunity to chase their dreams, despite their social …show more content…
However, a society completely built on equality would fail. In America, along with many other countries social inequality is at an all-time high. It has gotten to the point where even President Obama in a recent speech mentioned the “dangerous and growing inequality” in the nation which is now “the defining challenge of our time.” In order, to fix this problem at hand, I believe the first steps must be to reconstruct the basis of our educational system in America. The whole concept of undergraduate and graduate schools is to generate high-thinking individuals who have the knowledge and drive to make the world a better place in their pursuit of their dreams. Yet the flaws of this system are clearly seen when looking at the growing trend of disparity between the rich and the poor as a direct result of the selectivity of those whom receive a college degree. The educational system in effect now only furthers this social inequality with those who have money given significantly more of an advantage along the way. Since, the opportunity for a higher education is one of the few ways those born into poverty can climb social classes, then it is crucial to reconstruct the education system we have. I believe that changing the current college structure we have now to one that accepts nearly anyone who wants to attend is the only way we can break free from this growing divide between the poor and rich and