Causes Of Economic Inequality

3.1 How income inequality affect on people live in America. The income gap in America affects people, who live in this country. The issue has a strong impact in America’s society; in particular, the nutritional disparity between rich and poor people. In USA, the food gap becomes the top signal for the class distinction, but it used to be clothing or fashion. The food inequality in America is not only influencing the poverty, it is also cost hundreds of billions of dollar per year because of Non Communicable Diseases (NDCs) (Ferdman, 2014).

The middle class want to become rich and the low class only wants equality.” Orwell’s predictions of the party, the government in modern society, rises to power and the poor stay poor. In LA Times “Income Inequality makes the rich more scrooge-like, study finds”, “Since the 1980’s -- the end of a 30-year period… wealth has grown increasingly concentrated at the top of the economic ladder, while low-income Americans have commanded a smaller and smaller share of the nation’s wealth.” *add where quote is from* ”... top 5 percent of American families saw their real income increase 74.9 percent… the lowest-income fifth saw a decrease in real income of 12.1 percent… Sharply contrasting with the 1947-79 period… with the lowest income group actually seeing the largest gains.” Based on a video of Wealth Inequality in America, “ The richest (1 percent) is now (2012) taking up almost a quarter (24%) of the national income home; in 1976 they took home only 9%; meaning their share of income has tripled between 30 years.” *add where quote is from*“CEO’s of major corporations earn nearly 300 times more than an average worker.” How is it possible that a CEO earns multiple times more than a regular

In 8 Surprising Facts About The Shrinking Middle Class From “Third World America” (PHOTOS)by Hallie Seegal 08/09/2010 01:19 PM ET states that in 2005, the bottom 20 percent of household earners had an average income of $10,655 while households in the top 20 percent made nearly 160,000 – a disparity of 1,500 percent, the highest gap ever recorded. Even some might refer to the U.S. as “ a land of opportunity ”,the reality is

1992-2010 data from Wolff (2012). Table 3 represents the share of wealth held by the bottom 99% and top 1% in the United States from 1949 to 2010. Change of wealth distribution is not favorable for the bottom 99% as this class obtaining less and less wealth while the top 1%’s wealth is expanding. The gap between the rich and the poor is increasing. This factor has not only economic drawbacks but social problems are increasing at the same time (Kennickel, 2003).

In Peter Van Buren article, Goodnight American Dream: The middle Class is Now a Minority, Van Buren details this division. Once representing 62% of Americans the middle class went from the backbone of our country to a minority. Due to the growing social inequality gap since 1970, the middle class is disappearing at a steady rate, now representing 43% of all Americans. This division of social classes divide the nation unequally as more people are falling to the lower class America. In 1970, 29% of the nation income went to the upper class of America, now it is staggering 49% of the national income will go towards the already wealthy (Van Buren).

There are people who work 40 hours a week and are still in poverty; this is a highly prominent issue.The uneven distribution of wealth, known as wealth inequality, is a problem that plagues not only America but also the world. With wealth inequality, there are two main issues and one solution to those issues. The problems are that the wealth in America is unevenly distributed and there people in America who work 40 hours a week and still have very little money. Wealth inequality is the root of all problems faced in America.The solution to this problem is to slightly raise the minimum wage so the lower class will be able to gain wealth. In America the difference of wealth between the top tenth of the one-percent and the other 99% is astounding.

The article draws from references as studies done by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on the how the measure of wealth inequality between the richest nations is exceedingly high and may eventually lead to economic stagnation and slower economic growth in a nation’s economy. The article states that the top 20 percent of the population of the United States own eighty nine percent of net worth in the country, while the bottom 40 percent own less than a percent of net worth. Net worth in the article is defined as the total value of assets after the total value of liabilities is subtracted. I will explain how social stratification between the top twenty and bottom forty percent is caused by wealth inequality through four key sociological theories and concepts. Analysis A: In the Structural Functionalist perspective both groups are interdependent, meaning one group cannot exist without the other.

Wealth inequality is the unequal distribution of assets within a population. This typically results in a gradually increasing gap, with respect to net worth, that has yet to be filled. One of the factors which contribute to this crescive issue is the rapidly increasing wealth of the richest. This is most evident in the Forbes 400, a list of the 400 richest Americans. In 1982, one needed a net worth of 80 million dollars to enter the list, while the average for the list was 230 million dollars.

Furthermore, immigration not only does not benefit the native population but negatively affects it. By flooding the labor market with droves of new arrivals, primarily unskilled and uneducated laborers, the wages and employment opportunities for current citizens drastically decrease as “A 10 percent increase in the size of an education/age group due to the entry of immigrants (both legal and illegal) reduces the wage of native-born men in that group by 3.7 percent and the wage of all native-born workers by 2.5 percent ($1,396)” (Borjas). Additionally, the social welfare use of immigrant families of all education levels is 33% compared to 19% of native

This statistic is the bases for many people’s failure to believe in the American dream. Studies showed that in 2013, there was the widest wealth grope between the middle class and the upper class (1% of Americans). Factors such as our economy having large budget deficits and high levels of debt also contribute to no longer believing in this dream. The American dream has been becoming harder to reach a full-time job no longer provides us with the possibility to be financially stable. Narkus Jantti did a study where only about 8% American men start from the bottom fifth and rise to the top, and approximating 42% in the bottom fifth remain in the bottom when they become

Tax cuts and the middle class. The most important social class in America is shrinking at an alarming rate. The middle class, the driver of the economy is becoming few and are between. This is impart by stagnant wages and salaries for low skill jobs that need little to no education but also huge tax breaks for the tip top 1% makes the middle class pay for what is lost from them. Not only are the percentages that the middle class is taxed are high.

Conflict sociologists see this skewness as a problem in society. The people who become of wealth stay in wealth because they control the power due to the mass amount of money they have compared to the rest of the population. When we say wealthy, we are discussing the top two percent of wealthy people in America. The top two percent of people own over half the total wealth in the United States. Many cities and even states do not contain a single person that qualifies as being a part of the top two percent of wealthiest people in this country.

For this assignment, I selected three articles; one each from Forbes and The Economist, and an article from the “Opposing Viewpoints in Context” section of Gale, written by Sisi Zhang. These pieces all speak to the same theme: racial wealth inequality is real and is exacerbated by poor education, increased incarceration, and public policy. Over the last thirty years, the wealth of the average white family has increased much more than that of the average black or Latino family. For example, between 1983 and 2010, the average wealth of white families rose from $184,000 to $1.1 million, whereas those numbers are much less impressive for blacks and Hispanics. Average black wealth increased from $54,000 to $161,000, while Hispanic families realized a jump in average wealth from $46,000 to $226,000 in the same time period.

Economic inequality is a severe and growing problem that needs to be addressed and fixed. The United States is currently the richest country in history; however, that title seems only nominal when in reality, much of that wealth is controlled by a small 1% of the country’s population. Even with the major technological advancements and the rising productivity in the country, most Americans are left to work longer hours for lower wages. The United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income out of all the developed nations today and continues to head toward greater inequality. Things have gotten so bad that even those at the top are speaking out; the richest man on Earth, Bill Gates, acknowledges the problem, "Yes, some level

In the reading "The Rich Are Different from You and Me," Chrystia Freeland explains the increase of income inequality in wealthy people vs. People under the wealthy in of our society, which wealthy people are about 10 percent of the population and the people under the wealthy is about 90 percent of the population (Pg.52). In the reading it talks about how the wealthy people are overweening ahead of everyone else in our society. The reading shows statistics of growth presented between the wealthiest and the general society and how the wealthiest people in our society are separating their selves from more and more from the general society and are getting ahead of everyone else. Freeland believed that wealthiest people of today started out in